Ian Abdilla, the former head of the police’s economic crimes unit, testified on Friday that he doesn’t think that any investigations were triggered by Daphne Caruana Galizia’s writings.

Abdilla was testifying in the public inquiry into the Caruana Galizia’s assassination. The inquiry is headed by retired Judge Michael Mallia, who is joined by Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro and former Chief Justice Joseph Said Pullicino.

At one point it was pointed out by Jason Azzopardi, one of the family’s lawyers,that in 2016 Daphne Caruana Galizia had mentioned Neil Chennoweth of the ICIJ as having mentioned Maltese PEPs. “How many investigations were triggered by her writings?”, Azzopardi asked.

“None, I think”, Abdilla replied.

“How come the police didn't act? If I put out an advert in the Sunday Times announcing that I will be carrying out a hold up, wouldn't the police pick me up?", Azzopardi, asked Abdilla upon hearing that no investigations had been opened.

The witness appeared lost for words. "It’s a difficult question," Abdilla said.

“Daphne Caruana Galizia had written in April 2016 about the allegations. Had a police investigation been triggered immediately?”, he was later asked.  Abdilla replied in the negative, and did not reply when he was asked whether news of the Ultimate Beneficial Owner for Egrant being revealed over Skype was a red light.

Abdilla was also questioned over the police’s lack of action over picking up Nexia BT servers, especially those which had been set up inside a ministry – the Justice Ministry - after 2013.

Abdilla said that he thought some computers of Nexia BT were seized from a ministry in the Egrant inquiry.

“This is why it was important to seize the servers, because a private company, which opened secret Panamanian companies for Maltese PEPs set up an office at a ministry. This is the mafia state," Azzopardi said. The witness did not reply.

Abdilla also testified that documents linked to 17 Black and electronic equipment seized from Yorgen Fenech enabled police to identify a number of people for questioning

He had been asked about the Memorandum and Articles of Association for Dubai company 17 Black that were seized from Yorgen Fenech's house.

Abdilla said the documents were sent to Dubai for authentication. "I cannot take a document that I had never seen the likes of before and say this is genuine… If I had to bet, the documents seized appeared authentic and genuine," he said.

Abdilla added that as a consequence of the documents, a number of people of interest were identified for questioning.

When asked about the Enemalta wind farm deal in Montenegro in which the State utility company had bought the shares of a wind farm project from Cifidex for an inflated price, Abdilla said the police came across Cifidex from a transaction with 17 Black.

"If I had to bet, the documents seized appeared authentic and genuine"

“More evidence emerged from electronic equipment seized by the police,” he said.

 Abdilla was also asked about the ownership of the company Egrant – which Caruana Galizia had reported belonged to Michelle Muscat, a report which an inquiry had negated.

"Whilst the scope of the inquiry was quite narrow we went into great detail... Brian Tonna [of Nexia BT] said he had bought it off the shelf in case a client needed it. We couldn't find any evidence contradicting this fact. This includes all the documents from the Panama Papers, the computer experts and so on”, Abdilla told the inquiry.

Said Pullicino at one point asked Abdilla about the delay in moving in on Pilatus bank. “Hadn't this given Sadr time to destroy evidence?” “You had to be living in the situation”, was Abdilla’s reply.

“Did the police ask Brian Tonna to whom had he given the company name to over Skype?”, Judge Mallia asked. Abdilla gave a long-winded reply, but ultimately did not answer the question.

"When Egrant started, I had spoken to several magistrates and some had told me that they wouldn't have given me the warrant on the evidence I had. I had sought advice from several magistrates”, Abdilla said.

Judge Lofaro remarked though that it was unethical for the magistrates to give advice and noted that had he come to her she wouldn't have given any advice. “Magistrates are not for advice."

"Brian Tonna said he had bought it off the shelf in case a client needed it. We couldn't find any evidence contradicting this fact."

Mallia referred to a statement released by Pilatus Bank on 11 May 2017, where it is stated that the bank had commenced legal actions in the USA for defamatory actions. Abdilla said that he had spoken to Luis Felipe Rivera from the Bank, and al present and past employees of the bank at length.

However, Abdilla said that they had not questioned Rivera over the aforementioned statement.

Abdilla said that Rivera had filed a police report on the "leaks". The "leak" in the statement referred to the compliance visit by the FIAU to the now defunct bank. A copy of the statement was not given to inquiring magistrate Aaron Bugeja at the time, he added.

“Had the police asked Rivera what he meant by ‘having its reputation threatened by false and defamatory allegations?”, Mallia at one point asked. Abdilla replied in the negative.

“Had you asked him what these confidential documents and information that he was so upset about were?”, Mallia also asked, to which Abdilla replied that he was hands-on involved at the time and had delegated the work to an inspector. He said that Rivera may have been referring to correspondence.

"I don't exclude that Rivera didn't testify about this in the Egrant inquiry. We spoke to many people. More than likely, during Egrant, he was spoken to about it", Abdilla said.

"You are telling me that you ignored it completely”, Mallia replied tersely, to which Abdilla said that there were two separate inquiries ongoing.

"You have evidence right under your nose… You have Rivera saying that confidential documents which left the bank and you just left it at that?", Mallia continued.

"Although I can't be precise, we definitely looked into it. Rivera was spoken to more than once... I can't say exactly what Rivera said, it is slightly impossible”, Abdilla replied.

He was also asked about the delay in seizing the bank's servers, after the Panama Papers publication in 2016. Comodini Cachia asked: Had the police investigated the information about the Panama Papers and whether Egrant had a connection with the Panama Papers?

“Hearnville, Tillgate Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri – we had investigated these. Rogatory letters to Panama requested information about this”, he replied

The next sitting is on Wednesday 15 July when Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and a Gozitan journalist will testify.