The trial by jury of businessman Yorgen Fenech over the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia continued on Saturday with the testimony of pardoned middleman Melvin Theuma, as his secret recordings started to be played in open court.

Theuma picked up where he left off, which was an episode at Johann Cremona’s garage where Kenenth Camilleri gave Theuma a piece of paper with three phone numbers.  Theuma’s was one of those numbers, and Camilleri said that this meant that the police were onto him.

Asked by the prosecution whether he spoke to Camilleri again after that episode, Theuma said he did and Camilleri told him that “we are going to paint it as you are not involved in anything, as if the police don't know anything."

Asked what this was referring to, Theuma starkly replied: "The homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia."

Theuma detailed how former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta was directly linked to information leaks surrounding the investigation, recalling a specific encounter at Yorgen Fenech's Żebbuġ property a few weeks after the murder.

Theuma told he court how Fenech made light of potential police interrogations: "Yorgen said: 'If they arrest you, I will wait for you outside the depot with pastizzi.'"

The middleman also said that Johann Cremona promised him a list of questions that he would be asked, and a list of all the properties that would be raided by police.  Those lists, Theuma testified, never arrived.

Asked whether he knew anything about his impending arrest, Theuma said that Fenech had told him that he would be arrested on 16 November. “They used to tell me, 'If God may be, we will get rid of everything' – that the file would be closed," he told the court.

As it turned out, he was arrested on 14 November.

Theuma then testified about his thought process in selecting a lawyer – and made some startling claims with regards to political funding as well.

Theuma said that he wanted a “Nationalist lawyer”, which is why he initially approached Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina.  He said that Fenech had told him that a ‘Dr. Gatt’ would represent him – but Theuma did not trust this and wanted his own lawyer.

"Yorgen had even offered money to the PN so that David Casa would not be elected, because Casa was writing about 17 Black," he continued. 

Eventually, Theuma settled on Matthew Brincat and Kathleen Grima as his lawyers.

"Matthew Brincat and Kathleen Grima said they were going to fight to get me a presidential pardon. The government told me if I said the whole truth, I would get the pardon," Theuma told he court.

Theuma outlined the broad parameters of his presidential pardon, emphasising that his immunity from prosecution was contingent on disclosing everything he knew about additional major crimes.

Before moving on to Theuma’s infamous audio recordings, the middleman made a stark statement: "God needs to take me after this trial. When she was killed, my life ended. Before this, I had everything – I was happy, I travelled, I worked. What did I not have?"

Asked by the prosecution why he said yes to the murder request, Theuma replied: "It was seduction on his part. I made a big mistake by not saying no to him at the Blue Elephant that time. If I had, I wouldn't be here today."              

Theuma’s recordings then started to be played out in open court.

The first one focuses on when police began speaking to Vince Muscat about the murder, as Muscat was requesting a pardon. Fenech is heard telling Theuma that Muscat was going to rat him, to which Theuma said that he had never spoken to him.

"Stay calm, eh. Listen to me and don't rush, because I don't even know if it's a good idea for us to pass [the message] to them. If he leaks us, we'll expose him," Fenech is heard saying in the recording.

There are then references to Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta – who we have already learnt from earlier in this trial had a very close relationship with Fenech.

“He's my friend. You shouldn't panic, listen to me," Fenech told Theuma, who raised the notion that Fenech might say that he hired him.

Asked by the prosecution why Fenech told him not to panic, Theuma replied: "I don't know – to get me not to expose him, I guess.”

The prosecution asked Theuma whether he had ever physically threatened Fenech, particularly with a firearm – a claim that Theuma vehemently denied: “Never, I could never!"

"Never! Never! Madam Justice, if I had ever threatened him, would he ask me to pick up his wife from the airport and take her home?,” he said.

Another secret recording featured Theuma and Fenech discussing the pending bail application for the Degiorgio brothers, which is slated for a decision on the "22nd."

Theuma stressed that he makes it crystal clear to Fenech on tape that he will not take the fall alone, insisting he is not going to carry the sole responsibility. The recorded conversation also features repeated references to "betrayal" and "bail."

The recordings continued after the lunch break.

One recording shows the mistrust that had developed between Fenech and Theuma, particularly after Fenech had learnt that Theuma had been recording him, and further sound bites show the two discussing Vince Muscat and him speaking to the police.

"To this day, you have nothing to worry about. Because if they need to reach a conclusion, I will be in the midst of it," Theuma is heard on tape saying.

"But the person who fixes the situation is not equal to the person who carried out the act. How do they know these things," Fenech replied.

Theuma tried to calm Fenech: "Regarding Vince, it isn't true. I'm telling you; it isn't true," he is heard saying. But Fenech replied: "Then how do they know about the potato shed? How do they know you met at Busy Bee?"

A voice message then played in court revealed Fenech instructing Theuma to warn the Degiorgio brothers that Vince Muscat was talking to the police.

The Degiorgios, at this time, were obsessively looking forward to getting bail, and Theuma testified that Mario Degiorgio was consistently chasing him over it.  The bail never came.

"Yorgen told me to abandon the Degiorgios, to have nothing to do with them. Yorgen would obviously say such a thing because he never met them directly – but I knew them," Theuma told the jury.

In another recording, Theuma is heard saying that he wants “this issue regarding Keith [Schembri] sorted out.” "For me, he doesn't have the power to do it if he asks me – that is what he told me," Fenech replied back to him.

Asked what that meant, Theuma told the court that he took it to mean that Schembri did not have the power “to fix this whole thing regarding Daphne.”

In a different recording, Fenech and Theuma are heard discussing Cabinet deliberations about Vince Muscat’s request for a pardon. Theuma told jurors that Fenech claimed Schembri was actively leaking confidential updates from those proceedings to Silvio Valletta.

In the audio recording, Fenech can be heard telling Theuma that Schembri said he hadn't even gotten out of his own court cases, let alone this one.

Theuma told the court that he intentionally brought up the bail situation again.

"I can't even tell you I'm trying. I cannot do anything! What should I do? Go to the judge and tell him I killed her?," Fenech is heard saying on the recordings.

Theuma says that Fenech once told him that he felt 'trapped between four walls' – that he had “executed the Electrogas deal perfectly” but could not escape the murder.

The court then listened to recordings revealing Schembri's reaction upon learning of the assassination and Vince Muscat's disclosures regarding the HSBC heist and bomb assembly.

Fenech is heard saying on tape: "Keith told me: 'I would walk into the fire for you'. I trust Keith more than Silvio Valletta. The truth is the truth-when I told him [Keith] regarding the homicide, he froze."

"Even after she died, he still wanted to kill her,” Theuma tells the court about Fenech.  He says that Fenech once told him “'I would throw her from the balcony to her death myself.”

Then came another dramatic recording, of Fenech seemingly breaking down the players in the murder piece by piece.

"In these matters, you have three levels. There are the worst under the law [referring to the three hitmen], one is in the middle [referring to Theuma], and this one [referring to himself]. The first gets ten, this one gets seven, and this one gets five," Fenech is heard saying in the recording.

The numbers, Theuma says, refer to what Fenech thought each player deserved in prison.

"I am not malicious, I am not like her," Fenech says on the tape. “I know,” Theuma replies. “Like her... I would throw her to her death with my own hands, and I won't regret it!,” Fenech is heard saying.

Another recording shows Fenech’s disdain for the public demonstrations after Caruana Galizia was killed.

On tape, Fenech is heard remarking that activists and protesters "made her look like Mary Magdalene."

Fenech then dismisses the scale of public sympathy, asserting on tape that "only 4,000 people in Malta are behind Daphne, the rest are all against her."

In another part of a recording, there is another reference to Keith Schembri.

Fenech is heard telling Theuma: "I asked [Keith], did I do something wrong? He told me: 'As if! But you should have bloody told me before'."  Theuma says that this meant that Fenech should have told Schembri before the murder.

Theuma is then heard on tape saying: "How am I going to live with it on my conscience that something happened – that it happened all because of me?"

Prosecutor Godwin Cini asked what he was referring to when he spoke of his conscience.

Theuma: "I was referring to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Whoever needs to take the blame, must take it."

Theuma will continue testifying on Monday.