A police inspector told a court on Thursday that Yorgen Fenech and Adrian Delia had indeed shared Whatsapp messages, adding that he had reported the leak of the said messages to the media to the inquiring magistrate.
MaltaToday reported that a short conversation between the two, which took place in February 2019, had been retrieved by Europol and Maltese IT experts.
Fenech first sent Delia a satirical map of Europe, as seen through the eyes of the Maltese, which names the Netherlands as the land of ‘grass and sex’, Belgium as ‘the EU’, Germany as ‘Hitler and hairy women’ and Eastern Europe and Russia are ‘prostitutes’.
Delia replied with: “Sadly true.” This seems to be the only time, in this particular conversation, that Delia replied to Fenech. At the time, Fenech had already been outted as the owner of 17 Black.
Fenech messaged again an hour later, asking Delia: “How are you holding up?”
A minute later he said: “I think about you, but I don’t want to bother you and I don’t want to put myself on the list of people who bother you.” (Nahseb hafna fik imma ma indejjqekx ma nzidlekx mal-lista tal-fitti.)
Lead inspector Keith Arnaud was asked about the leak when the compilation of evidence against Fenech resumed on Thursday. The police officer said he had reported this to the magistrate looking into the leaks. He said he had spoken to people in the task force and expressed his dismay at the leaks.
Pressed on the matter, Arnaud said that, “in respect of the opposition leader, that was the exact text.”
In comments to MaltaToday, Delia said he “does not recall” the chat.
“If it happened it certainly does not make me an acquaintance with the person in question from whom I never solicited anything be it money or things in kind – before and after 17 Black,” he said.
“What you refer to, the alleged reply from my end, is clearly no sign of complicity or friendship with the person in question,” Delia said.
This was not the first time that Delia and Fenech allegedly corresponded by Whatsapp. A few weeks ago, Times of Malta reported on other conversations between the two.
In one particular leaked conversation, Fenech invited Delia for lunch, to which the PN leader replied that he would ask his former aide, Pierre Portelli, to set it up.
Delia had initially told time of Malta that he had not had any communication with Fenech after the 17 Black revelation, but later said there had been no communication “of relevance.”
He had also suggested that the messages were fabricated.
The PN leader has repeatedly insisted that his chats with Fenech no longer show up on his phone, suggesting that the police might have deleted the records. He had even said this in a recent interview with The Malta Independent.