Footage from a press conference on the day that Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed contradicts the testimony which Keith Schembri gave in court last Monday.
Caruana Galizia was killed on 16 October 2017 by a car bomb which exploded just after 3pm.
In his testimony as part of the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech, who stands accused of being complicit in the assassination, Keith Schembri – former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s long-time chief of staff – testified that he was with Muscat and his head of communications Kurt Farrugia at the Office of the Prime Minister when they first got word of the bomb.
He testified that they had received a telephone call from Mater Dei CEO Ivan Falzon who told them of an explosion in Burmarrad, at which point Muscat called his father – who has a fireworks factory in that area – to check up on him. Schembri said that Falzon called again minutes later to say that the explosion was in Bidnija and that it was probably a car bomb.
However, footage - which can be seen in part below - from a press conference seems to completely contradict Schembri’s testimony.
The footage shows Muscat at a press conference in Sliema along with then Economy Minister Chris Cardona and then Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Schembri.
A time-stamp on a video camera shown in the footage, where journalists were taking comments from Muscat, indicates the time being 15:13 on 16 October 2017 – which would have been only minutes after the car bomb exploded.
Schembri is nowhere to be seen at any point in the video footage.
The Department of Information’s daily press conference advisory note sent out to all media houses from that day also confirms Muscat’s press engagement as having been at 14:30.
The Malta Independent sent questions to Muscat about this specific part of Schembri’s testimony and his attendance at this press conference on Tuesday, but no replies have been received yet.
Peter Caruana Galizia presented the footage in court on Wednesday in the public inquiry into the journalist’s death.