A car dealer who maintained secret contact with former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar while the investigation into journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder was underway is facing prosecution over a disputed medical certificate.
Edgar Brincat, known as "il-Ġojja", is alleged to have passed the certificate to Cutajar in 2019. The document, reportedly prepared by his daughter, Dr Stephanie Brincat, was used to justify his absence from a traffic-related court sitting. Both father and daughter have pleaded not guilty.
During Thursday's hearing, the court was told that the certificate came to light in the course of an inquiry into information leaks by public officials linked to the Caruana Galizia case.
Taking the stand, Cutajar acknowledged delivering a medical certificate in Brincat's name to the Principal Citation Office. He recalled how Brincat had approached him in May 2019, concerned that a conviction might lead to the loss of his driving licence. It was at that moment, he said, that "my brain clicked, I could use this in connection with other cases." The former commissioner added that, notwithstanding the criticism, "in the circumstances, I did what I had to do."
Cutajar's dealings with Brincat later became the subject of the leaks inquiry, after claims that he had asked the car dealer whether Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the murder plot, had hidden a secret recording pointing to businessman Yorgen Fenech. Brincat is understood to have alerted Theuma that the police commissioner was aware of the recordings.
Theuma was eventually arrested in November 2019 in a staged money-laundering investigation, a manoeuvre that allowed the authorities to secure the tapes while Cutajar remained at the helm of the force. Today, Theuma is a star witness against Fenech, who denies involvement in the 2017 assassination.
Although police seized Cutajar's electronic devices in 2021 as part of the leaks probe, he has not been charged. The inquiry did, however, lead to criminal proceedings against others, among them Keith Schembri, former chief of staff to Joseph Muscat, accused of sending his bodyguard, Kenneth Camilleri, to "calm" Theuma in 2018.
Separately, Yorgen Fenech also faces charges of attempting to bribe former police officer Ray Aquilina through a planned property deal in Birżebbuġa. At the time, Aquilina was meant to be investigating Fenech's secret Dubai company, 17 Black, believed to have been set up to funnel funds to Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi. Both deny wrongdoing.
Magistrate Gabriella Vella presided over Thursday's sitting. Inspector Shaun Friggieri prosecuted. Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili appeared for Dr Brincat, while lawyer Stefano Filletti represented Edgar Brincat.