Yorgen Fenech and Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis had exchanged hundreds of messages in 2019, the Time of Malta reports.

The news report reads that the two had exchanged 700 messages between January and October 2019, and that the messages are part of a larger cache which will be presented in the compilation of evidence against Fenech.

Fenech stands accused of masterminding the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The report reads that Fenech was arrested a few weeks after the two stopped messaging each other. It also reads that the two had met for meals during 2019, after Fenech was found to be the owner of 17 Black.

Zammit Lewis told The Times of Malta that he stopped communicating with Fenech before the latter was arrested, and that he never had any commercial or legal relationship with him.