Melvin Theuma told Police Inspector Keith Arnaud, in the presence of paramedics, that his wounds were self-inflicted while being taken in to the ambulance on Tuesday evening, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa told the press on Wednesday morning.

Gafa was addressing a press conference after Theuma was found with wounds late Tuesday evening in his Swieqi home. He was rushed to hospital due to his serious injuries. The police said on Wednesday evening that his condition is stable. 

Theuma, Gafa said, was found in his bedroom with a knife in his right hand with serious wounds to his neck. He also had multiple wounds under his right ribs and injuries to his left wrist.

Magistrate Astrid May Grima is leading an inquiry, the Commissioner said. "The indications are that Theuma's wounds were self-inflicted," the Commissioner said. "We saw no defensive wounds, and even the blood splatter was concentrated showing no signs of a struggle."

The Commissioner said that nobody inside the apartment block, nor the police stationed on site, heard any commotion.

Theuma was taken to hospital and operated upon with urgency. While having grievous injuries, his condition was said to be stable as at Wednesday morning, Gafa said, while stressing that investigations are ongoing.

Kathleen Grima, Theuma's lawyer, at around 9.13 pm called Inspector Keith Arnaud saying she could not get through to her client. Arnaud then contacted the police stationed outside his home.

The Commissioner said that Theuma has two officers assigned to him for close protection, and that wherever he goes they follow.

"Once entering, they found Theuma in the aforementioned state.  The police went in at 9.30pm, as  Theuma's partner with her mother and child arrived and opened the door for police to enter.  In the apartment, Theuma lived with his partner, her son and his partner's mother. They all exited at 7.20pm and returned 9.30pm while he stayed home.  We established that it is normal for the partner to go out at that time, and that Theuma told his partner to take the keys as he wanted to sleep."

It seems that Theuma was alone at home during the time of the incident, Gafa said.

He said that Arnaud managed to speak with Theuma before he was taken to hospital, and asked him if the wounds were self-inflicted or if someone else did it. He said Theuma responded that the wounds were self-inflicted and nobody else was involved, saying this in the presence of the paramedics.

All evidence on site was elevated and will be investigated in the inquiry, including Theuma's phone and that of his partner's, Gafa said.

"Theuma had returned home from a meeting with his lawyer at 6pm. He lives on the third floor of the apartment block. He had close protection from the special intervention unit (not inside his home) and also had two more officers stationed outside the apartment block, one in the basement level due to lift access from the parking area, and one at the main door. All movement is logged, and these registries were handed over to the magistrate."

Taking questions from the press, Gafa said that he does not see any failure on the part of the police at this stage, saying that Theuma had his own privacy. The protection given to him was up to his front door, Gafa said. He did say that at the beginning there used to be police inside his home, but Gafa felt that his privacy was being invaded and after being approached by his lawyers, the police decided to stop the internal protection, keeping it outside his front door. "Everytime he exited his home he would ride in a police car with police protection. Inspector Keith Arnaud was informed with all of his movements."

Gafa said that the decision to provide security to Theuma was taken by the police and they weren't asked to provide it.

Gafa said that Theuma today is a free man, a state witness with a pardon, and he has a right to his privacy. "At no moment did we have any indications that he had suicidal thoughts and so up until yesterday his protection ended at his home door."

The Commissioner also revealed that there is no CCTV in the apartment block.

The apartment, Gafa specified, is Theuma's own home and was not one that the police placed him in. He said the police conducted a risk assessment to assure the security up to his home door, which was provided.

Asked about the noose found outside the courts, he said that it was only just brought to his attention and the police need to investigate the photo, and he does not have any further information about it.

Asked if security was security given to Vince Muscat, one of the three men charged with carrying out the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had asked for presidential pardon in exchange for information, Gafa said that the man is inside the prison, and so his security falls under the CEO of that agency. "If he comes out onto the streets then the police will implement the nexessary safeguards."

Turning to potential threats, Gafa said: "We do not know of any threats to Theuma made over past days so we did not have any alarms in that respect. But we never took anything for granted so whenever he left his apartment he always rode with the police."

The Commissioner confirmed that no drugs were found on site.

Regarding the recordings that were found recently, he said that the police is doing its job with Europol to understand what could have happened, and over the past days began listening to the eight of them. "Any investigation that has to occur will take place."

The middleman was set to testify today in the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech, who is charged with being the mastermind in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Some cast doubts on the police statement, saying that the wounds could not have been self-inflicted. Opposition Leader Adrian Delia called for prudence and said people should not rush to conclusions, while civil society NGO Repubblika spoke about Malta being a 'Mafia state' and compared last night's incident to cases where people died while in police custody.