Outgoing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat admitted to having contact with Yorgen Fenech while his name had already cropped up in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation, however this was done ‘in consultation with the Malta Security Services,’ a spokesperson for his office told The Malta Independent.

It was reported by Lovin Malta yesterday that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had exchanged regular text messages with 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech, who has now been arraigned in connection to the assassination of Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The Malta Independent sent a number of questions to the Office of the Prime Minister, asking to confirm whether text messages were exchanged, whether it was true that messages were exchanged while Fenech was already a suspect, to state when the last time a phone call or text message was exchanged between Muscat and Fenech, and whether the Prime Minister is willing to share the contents of all the messages he and Fenech have shared over the past three years.

In response, a spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister said: “While the Prime Minister cannot at this stage comment on the specifics, one has to clarify that contacts with the said person were continued after the suspect’s name cropped up in the investigation, in consultation with the Malta Security Services.”

The spokesperson said that the Prime Minister cannot comment further due to the ongoing investigation. As such, the content of the texts prior to Yorgen Fenech’s name cropping up, and after, are still unknown.

Yorgen Fenech, while having been charged, is also pointing the finger at the Prime Minister’s former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri in connection with the case. Schembri had been arrested and interrogated, however was eventually released from arrest. This situation has been one of the main reasons for the countless protests that took place outside Castille and Parliament over the past days.

Another major point of news also broke yesterday. A letter had been published by sections of the press that was allegedly found during searches conducted by the police at the property owned by Yorgen Fenech at Portomaso. The letter allegedly implicates both the 17 Black owner and the prime minister’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Muscat had announced his resignation last week, but it was not immediate, and will occur sometime in January.

Lovin Malta had originally broke the story regarding the text messages, and wrote that the pair exchanged friendly messages, a fact that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had not spoken about before. In addition, messages were sent when Fenech was already a suspect in the investigation, news reports read.