The trial by jury of businessman Yorgen Fenech has entered its 32nd day, with more witnesses expected to continue testifying before Madam Justice Edwina Grima.
Wednesday's sitting saw jurors shown more messages extracted from Fenech's mobile phone, with the jury told of the existence of group chats featuring several Maltese high-profile figures.
These chats included a group named 'No Valletta, No Party' - which included former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, former MFSA chief executive Joseph Cuschieri and Kenneth Azzopardi - and another named 'Sassicaia' - which included Fenech, Schembri, and then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
The court also heard that the self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma is fit to testify in proceedings..
More witnesses are expected to testify as proceedings resume Thursday morning.
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.
Refresh the page for updates
12:03: Prosecutor Godwin Cini then refers the witness to his police statement of 27 November 2019
GC: "In your statement, you said there were rumours Melvin had been arrested. Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud asked you, 'How did you know Melvin had been arrested?', to which you replied: 'Through Keith, and I decided to go to Yorgen to see if he was okay.'
Do you remember telling the police you went to see Yorgen out of your own initiative?"
AV: "I'm trying to forget this whole episode. I have PTSD."
GC: "Did you know Melvin?"
AV: "No. All I knew was he used to deliver meat to the Fenech family. I didn't know him personally."
GC: "Today, you testified that when you took Yorgen to Gozo he was very calm. However, in your police statement you had said, 'He was shaking terribly.' You also told him, 'If you have a problem, let's go to Gozo.'"
AV: "I wanted to give him the right advice and not only medically."
GC: "In your statement, you said Yorgen told you "I think I'm in deep shit".
AV: "I'm not sure, could be."
11:59: After a brief break, proceedings resume.
Resuming his examination, prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC) reminds witness doctor Adrian Vella (AV) about the night police officers went to his home.
GC: "Were you alone?"
AV: "No. My wife, my daughter and my daughter's boyfriend were also there."
GC: "Did you receive or make any other calls?"
AV: "My daughter told me someone was calling from the police depot. I then called Keith Schembri to tell him the police were at my house and that I had received a call from the depot."
"If I didn't tell him, who was I supposed to tell?" he says.
The witness adds he believes Gianluca Caruana Curran may have reported him to the police because he had not attended the meeting the lawyer had asked him to.
He also says he may have called Schembri more than once that night, although he could not remember for certain.
The witness again remarks the police had been banging on his door "very excessively."
Recalling what happened after he was taken to the police depot, the witness becomes emotional and wipes away tears.
AV: "They locked me inside a cage," he said, adding that he was left there for hours before being taken upstairs.
He testifies Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud, Inspector Kurt Zahra and former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar were present. According to the witness, Cutajar was pacing while making telephone calls.
"Come on, don't take long," Cutajar allegedly told him.
The witness says he was then questioned by investigators before being allowed to return home.
He adds Arnaud later contacted him again and asked him to return to the police depot for a second interview.
11:10: GC: "Two days later, on 26 November, you went to the police depot to speak to the police, correct?"
AV: "It was raining and it was around 11:30pm when they started knocking on my door repeatedly. I said to myself, 'They've come for me because of those papers.'"
The witness says he did not open the door immediately. Instead, he phoned Keith Schembri.
GC: "Why did you call Keith?"
AV: "Because we were friends. Keith told me: 'It's better if you open the door for them.'"
The judge calls a short recess after this.
11:08: Prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC): "How many times did you go to Keith Schembri's house?"
Doctor Adrian Vella (AV): "A few times. On this occasion, I picked up the four documents, which were face down and folded. I then drove to Yorgen Fenech at Portomaso."
The witness is shown photographs of the area at Keith Schembri's residence and asked to indicate where the documents had been. He is then shown a photograph of one of the documents.
GC: "Have you ever seen this document before? Do you recognise it?"
AV: "No, I had never seen it before. I don't know what it contained."
Describing what happened when he arrived at Portomaso, the witness says he "got the fright of my life."
Yorgen Fenech was in what he refers to as the "whisky room." Also present were lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran and a woman seated on a sofa, whom he believes may have been a lawyer, although he does not know her identity.
"There were police officers, officials and so many people," he says.
He explains he hurriedly handed the documents to Caruana Curran, thinking it was better to give them directly to the lawyer.
Fenech then took the papers from Caruana Curran, picked up additional A4 sheets and began writing.
GC: "What was being said?"
AV: "Fenech was talking to himself, repeating, 'It can't be, it can't be,' while writing continuously in a frantic manner. I also heard him say "if i go down, everyone will go down with me".
AV: "Suddenly, Yorgen Fenech's wife came into the room and said that he had to go because the police escort had arrived. Fenech immediately put the papers aside and ignored them."
GC: "He didn't say why he had to go downstairs or who he was going down with?"
AV: "No."
10:55: During his testimony in the jury trial, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri had denied passing on the documents.
He had even challenged the courts to bring Adrian Vella for a head-to-head confrontation over the claim.
Schembri had even said he would sue him for libel 'because he is lying.'
10:50: Prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC): “I want to take you to a week later, Sunday, 24 November.”
Doctor Adrian Vella: “At around 8:30am, Keith Schembri called me and invited me to go over to his house for a whiskey. I told him I was not coming because I was busy.
About two hours later, I received a call from an unsaved number. I did not answer and shortly after, I received a message from the same number saying, "Yors.". Then I called the number and it was Yorgen.
He told me, ‘Go and collect something from Keith.’”
GC: “Four days earlier, Yorgen was arrested, did you see him?
AV: “I was called to the police depot to carry out a medical examination on Yorgen. I examined him and ordered he be taken by ambulance to Mater Dei Hospital.
I did not accompany him in the ambulance, contrary to what was reported by someone in the media. I want to make that clear.
Yorgen was complaining of chest pain, and I ordered he undergo an angiogram. Three police officers remained with him at all times.”
GC: “After Yorgen told you to go to Keith, what happened? Didn't you ask him what it was he wanted you to collect?”
AV: “No, I didn't ask him. I went to Keith Schembri's house. The maid opened the door for me and I briefly spoke to Keith's wife before Keith came down the stairs. He finally came, he stopped mid stair way and told me, "Take those” and pointed to some documents on the table.
I picked up four documents. There were several papers there, but these four had been set aside separately.”
10:35: Asked what happened the next day, Vella replied: “On Sunday, I was in Malta. Franco had to return to Malta because he was meant to pick me up. I called him, but he did not answer. I was still very offended they had not trusted me and had asked me to leave my own home.”
“Why do you think they did not trust you?,” prosecutor Cini asks.
“I don't know. […] The next time I heard anything about them was through the media, when Yorgen was arrested at Portomaso three days later,” Vella replies.
Vella said that when Fenech was arrested, they still had the keys to his house in Gozo. “The driver eventually returned them to me, and until then I could not even go back to Gozo.”
10:25: Asked to recall exactly what happened in that Gozo trip, Vella asys that it was eight years ago and he had been through a lot. "I helped them, and they tried to drown me," he says.
He testifies that he remembers hearing a lot of raised voices. "I started hearing talk about a helicopter and a rocket," he says, adding that the brothers were not in a good state at all.
He says that he personally called lawyers but as soon as he mentioned Yorgen Fenech's name, they refused to take the case.
Becoming emotional, the witness said he has tried to put the episode behind him because it had hurt him and his family.
"It hurt. I did a lot for many people, and they all turned their backs on me," he says as tears roll down his face.
Eventually the brothers took his phone and asked him to wait in the back garden.
"The two then began shouting and yelling in such a loud and aggressive manner. Then they took my phone and began calling themselves," Vella says.
"After around 15 minutes, I went back in, took my phone and left. I was so angry and offended that they had asked me to leave, so I walked out," he continues.
Asked to elaborate on the helicopter and rocket reference, Vella replies: "I don't think they were talking about PlayStation."
"They went from zero to a hundred. They weren't in a good state. You can't imagine how someone changes when they're under the influence of cocaine. The best thing I could do was leave," he says.
He says that he did not see either of the brothers taking cocaine, but saw white powder on the floor of the house.
10:05: Vella testifies that Franco was also present at the Gozo trip, and at one point he and his brother told him that they were looking for a lawyer.
Asked why, the doctor replies: "I don't know. Franco told me he needed one."
Both brothers then used his phone to get in touch with several lawyers, but nobody seemed to want to represent them. He recalls a lot of shouting and being asked to leave the room a lot, so he decided to go back to Malta.
Around that time, Vella testifies, there were reports that three people were being linked to Daphne's murder, and word was circulating that Fenech may have been one of them.
Yorgen's brother Franco told him as much, Vella testified. This led to Fenech being focused on finding legal assistance rather than getting the medical help he needed.
"He shut everyone out. He hadn't yet realised the state he was in," Vella says.
09:45: "He was definitely under the influence, but he was not hyperactive. He may have taken benzodiazepines to calm himself down, although that is only my opinion. He wasn't there mentally. We barely spoke," Vella says of Fenech on that trip.
He says that Fenech asked Vella to borrow his phone, saying that he had left his at home, and made three calls with it.
Vella says that he does not recall what the calls were about or who he was calling, but says that he was aggressive to the callers. "He sounded angry. He was under the influence and the anger made sense," Vella says.
He says that Fenech's brother Franco had called because he was worried about Yorgen's condition. Vella says that both he and Franco had spent years trying to persuade Fenech to go to rehabilitation for his drug addiction, but they would be brushed off.
Occasionally, Fenech would agree to it and fill out the paperwork - but "that's as far as we'd get. In the end, he wouldn't go."
09:30: Vella is asked about Fenech’s condition when Melvin Theuma was arrested on 15 November 2019.
He says that Fenech called him from Gozo and said that he wasn’t feeling well. He continues that Fenech had been in a poor mental state for months, likely due to his cocaine addiction, and would frequently isolate himself from people.
He says that he urged Fenech to go to Gozo to rest, and then picked him up from Portomaso where he could tell that he was under the influence of cocaine. “He was coked up. After 40 years as a doctor, I could tell," the doctor testifies.
Fenech did not speak much throughout the journey, Vella says.
09:25: Fielding questions from the prosecution, Vella tells jurors that he has known Yorgen Fenech for 32 years and has been the Fenech family doctor for 38 years.
“We were practically family,” Vella says, although he adds that he was not part of Fenech’s closer circle of friends.
Vella says he was introduced to Keith Schembri by Fenech in around 2016, as Schembri was seriously ill with cancer at that point. He used to check-up on Schembri while he underwent chemotherapy and also recalled accompanying both him and Fenech on a medical trip overseas.
09:15: Judge Edwina Grima is in the courtroom.
The prosecution has told the judge that murder middleman Melvin Theuma is to testify next week, and asked that special arrangements be made. The judge reassures that they have "everything prepared."
Theuma's testimony is likely to take around a week.
Today's first witness though is Dr Adrian Vella, who was Yorgen Fenech's doctor.
He has been a recurring figure in this trial, as prosecutors allege that he was an intermediary between Yorgen Fenech and Theuma. He is also alleged to have passed letters on between Fenech and Keith Schembri.
09:00: Good morning and welcome to day 32 of proceedings in the trial against Yorgen Fenech. We expect to get underway shortly.