The jury hearing the trial of Yorgen Fenech is set to resume today after another day dominated by secretly recorded conversations in which murder middleman Melvin Theuma repeatedly implicated the businessman in the plot to assassinate journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Johann Cremona, a business associate of Fenech, is set to continue being cross-examined by the defence.
Yorgen Fenech, a businessman, has pleaded not guilty to two principal charges: complicity in the wilful homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia and criminal association to commit the murder.
Caruana Galizia, a columnist with The Malta Independent, was killed in a car bomb on 16 October, 2017.
Five men have already been convicted in connection with Caruana Galizia's assassination. Vince Muscat admitted his role in the murder in 2021 and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Alfred and George Degiorgio each received 40-year prison sentences after pleading guilty in 2022, while Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025 for supplying the bomb used in the attack.
The prosecution is being led by Attorney General lawyers Godwin Cini, Anthony Vella and Danika Vella, assisted by Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud and Inspector Kurt Zahra. Fenech is represented by lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianella Demarco and Gianluca Caruana Curran, while lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi are appearing parte civile on behalf of the Caruana Galizia family.
Judge Edwina Grima is presiding.
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10:58 Defence lawyer Charles Mercieca argues that, "from a quick glance", the message appears to be an old photo, from when he was so young he "hadn't even grown a beard yet".
He says it was taken by a person known to the court and sent to Keith Schembri.
Judge Grima leaves the courtroom and orders a recess . But the arguments continue outside Hall 22, with lawyers from both sides shouting "disgrace" over each other.
We'll be back when the court resumes.
10:57 The jurors whisper among themselves as Judge Edwina Grima warns the prosecuting lawyer that he could be held in contempt of court.
She appoints court expert Martin Bajada to examine the document at the centre of the dispute.
Defence lawyer Charles Mercieca objects, arguing that court rules do not allow such documents to be produced in open court.
"My recordings were spread all over Malta," Cremona fires back. He insists the messages shown in the screenshot were sent to him by Keith Schembri.
"Everyone's recordings came out," he says.
Judge Grima cuts him off.
"Stop reading. Calm down."
Cremona's testimony is over.
The jurors are ushered out of the courtroom.
10:36 Johann Cremona goes on to allege that defence lawyer Charles Mercieca and Keith Schembri met at Schembri's office, near the Turkish embassy, on the eve of Schembri's testimony.
Cremona: Let him tell you about it. You think you're going to break me. You're mistaken.
He also claims another person in the photograph is a certain "Ruben Ta' Fonzu."
Cremona: You think you're going to bring me down? With all of Malta behind you, you still haven't got a chance. Madam Judge, I've had enough.
Judge Grima warns him to calm down or risk being held in contempt.
Cremona presses on.
Cremona: While his client is in prison, he's sending him messages. Let's not have anyone pretending to be a saint.
Mercieca asks to see the photograph if it includes him.
Judge Grima cuts in.
Judge Grima: Dr Mercieca, I don't want to see you laughing. This is no laughing matter.
10:31 A conversation is shown on the courtroom screens, but the judge prohibits the media from reporting its contents.
At one point, the witness addresses defence lawyer Charles Mercieca and tells him, "If you want to laugh, we're going to laugh now."
Johann Cremona: I don't send selfies while my client, Yorgen Fenech, is in prison, while sending messages to Keith Schembri. If you think you're very clever, you're not. You sent Keith Schembri your best wishes.
"I'm fed up now," the witness says.
Cremona pulls a folded sheet of paper from his pocket.
The prosecution leans over to see it before Judge Edwina Grima intervenes and implores the witness to calm down.
The court marshal takes the document and hands it to the judge.
Cremona claims that for the past 10 months, people have been paying sections of the media "to break" him.
Cremona: I went to tell someone, and they told me they had nothing to do with the lawyers. They've been trying to break me.
He then shows what appears to be a screenshot of messages to Yorgen Fenech.
Judge: Where did you get that?
Cremona: I took that screenshot from messages Keith Schembri sent me.
Judge: So those are messages Keith Schembri sent you?
Cremona: Yes. I took the full screenshot. Can you believe they're blaming Keith, yet he's sending (him) messages like that? I've had this in my pocket since I came to court this morning. I swore to myself I wouldn't take it out. I have more copies of it.
10:20 The defence asks the witness whether he and Keith Schembri were friends.
Johann Cremona sarcastically replies, "We'd go out for rabbit together. That's someone else."
The remark draws an immediate rebuke from the judge.
The defence presses on.
Cremona: Keith never told me anything.
Asked whether he contacted Schembri because he was "powerful," Cremona replies: "I don't think he had any power left."
When the defence suggests he contacted Schembri because he was trying to get himself out of trouble, Cremona replies that Schembri "was the first one to resign when the case broke."
10:13 Defence lawyer Gianella De Marco turns to messages exchanged between Johann Cremona and Keith Schembri, in which the pair discussed giving evidence.
She suggests the two were acting "like a team" when they said that they should not testify because they believed lead investigator Keith Arnaud was after them.
De Marco: You discussed your testimony together, didn't you?
Cremona: No. I only told him that when I was first questioned, I said I knew nothing. Then recordings started surfacing one after another. I never discussed my testimony with him. I only asked him whether he wanted to testify.
Judge Edwina Grima steps in.
Judge: Why were you speaking to Keith Schembri about the case?
Cremona: Because I had nobody else to talk to.
Judge: Did you think Keith Schembri was involved in the case?
Cremona: Keith Schembri was involved in everything.
09:57 Another secretly recorded conversation between Johann Cremona and Melvin Theuma is played to jurors.
Theuma is heard saying to Cremona that he will make former prime minister Joseph Muscat "shit himself" in parliament by getting then-opposition leader Simon Busuttil to press him, during a parliamentary sitting, to grant someone a presidential pardon and "solve the case".
As with many of the recordings played throughout the trial, the conversation is punctuated by a stream of colourful expletives.
09:54 De Marco returns to the meetings between Kenneth Camilleri and Melvin Theuma.
Johann Cremona says he once dropped Theuma off at his Żurrieq home and stayed out of the conversation. Later, Camilleri and Theuma met in Cremona's office, and they spoke briefly out of earshot near a coffee machine.
"I realised later this was bad news."
The following day, Theuma asked to speak to Kenneth again. Cremona called him, and the pair arranged to meet for coffee at Republic Square in Valletta. Cremona says he did not hear what was discussed at this time.
As Cremona was paying for their coffee, he says he suddenly heard Theuma shouting in anger. "Get them a bag of cash each so they can run," he was heard shouting.
According to Cremona, Theuma angrily shouted that someone should "sort out" bail for them (the Degiorgio brothers) and provide each of them with "a bag of cash" so they could flee.
Cremona says it was only after the first, second and third meetings that he began to realise something was going on, although he insists he did not understand who had become caught up in it at the time.
De Marco suggests that, at the time, Theuma himself was unsure whether Yorgen Fenech was genuinely involved or whether the Degiorgio brothers were simply using him for money.
9:49 Johann Cremona testified that there was a stage when middleman Melvin Theuma doubted whether the Degiorgio brothers had actually carried out the murder on his behalf, which happened when Theuma told him the Degiorgios were demanding 400,000 euros from former economy minister Chris Cardona to fund their trial.
9:46 The defence revisited the meeting between Kenneth Camilleri and Melvin Theuma in Valletta, with Cremona recalling that he overheard the pair discussing bail for the Degiorgio brothers along with mentions of money, though he maintained that at that stage he did not know Theuma was involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
9:38 Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco asks Johann Cremona if he was sure he never heard Kenneth Camilleri and Melvin Theuma discuss bail during a meeting, and jurors were played a recording in which Cremona appeared to describe the bail discussion alongside references to boxes of money. Cremona clarified that he was recounting what Theuma had previously told him rather than something he witnessed firsthand, adding that it was difficult to deal with Theuma at the time because he was depressed.
09:28 Cremona says Melvin Theuma would go to him ranting when he couldn't reach Yorgen.
He rejects suggestions that he had tried to turn Theuma against Yorgen Fenech.
"You're trying to paint me as someone who was against Yorgen. I wasn't," he tells the defence.
The defence now reads from one of Theuma's secret recordings.
In it, Cremona is heard telling Theuma: "Just as Keith sent Kenneth (Camilleri) to calm you down and use me, today you're going to use me too."
The defence points out that Theuma never actually mentioned Keith Schembri in that exchange.
Cremona says, "From day one, Melvin always insisted Kenneth had been sent by Keith. I couldn't tell him otherwise. In reality, Kenneth came from Castille. I'm not going to lie or stick my neck out to protect anyone."
9:25 Johann Cremona told the court that he knew Kenneth Camilleri because he was friends with Camilleri's father. When defence lawyer Giannella de Marco asked if Keith Schembri had phoned him to say Kenneth was coming and to take care of him, Cremona answered no. Although Schembri had his phone number, Cremona stated he did not know where Schembri obtained it, adding that everyone was coming to him at the time, noting that Keith Schembri approached him when Yorgen Fenech was not answering his phone, and that Ray Aquilina, the former head of the police anti-money laundering unit, also came to him asking for Fenech's number.
9.19 The defence started the proceedings by questioning Cremona regarding a meeting he had with Kenneth Camilleri, who served as a bodyguard to then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.
9.15 Today's court session has begun, and defence lawyer Giannella de Marco has commenced her cross-examination.
8.57 Over the past three days, the jury has heard evidence from Johann Cremona, who acted as a go-between for several key figures implicated in the murder. As a business partner of Yorgen Fenech, Cremona was also a confidante of Melvin Theuma and remained in contact with Keith Schembri, the chief of staff to former prime minister Joseph Muscat, with his cross-examination expected to continue this morning.