Melvin Theuma admitted under cross-examination on Wednesday that he had lied when he implicated former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, as defence lawyer Gianella De Marco repeatedly challenged the self-confessed middleman's credibility.

As the cross-examination started after four days of question from the prosecution, defence lawyer Gianella de Marco confronted Theuma over contradictions in his evidence, his infamous letter implicating Keith Schembri, his contacts with senior police officers and his relationships with people linked to organised crime.

Theuma admitted that he had lied or made assumptions, but insisted that his present testimony represented his attempt to tell the whole truth and comply with the conditions of his presidential pardon.

One of the most contentious moments came over Theuma's allegations concerning Schembri. De Marco pointed out that Theuma had written that Schembri and Yorgen Fenech had used him to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia and were subsequently trying to kill him.

But Theuma conceded that Schembri had never spoken to him about Caruana Galizia, had never sent him to kill her, and had never given him money for the murder.

Asked whether he had therefore lied about Schembri, Theuma admitted that he had, blaming his state of mind at the time. He maintained, however, that his secret recordings of conversations with Fenech proved the existence of a wider conspiracy.

Theuma also acknowledged that he had been bluffing when he mentioned Schembri while speaking to Johann Cremona, saying he believed Cremona did not want Fenech to be caught.

De Marco also challenged Theuma over the circumstances in which the letter was written. He said Edgar Brincat, known as il-Ġojja, had advised him to name people rather than refer vaguely to "my mate" or "my boss", and had suggested that he write a letter so that a copy would reach the Nationalist Party if he were killed.

Theuma insisted that he had written the letter himself. He said he had named Schembri because, at the time, he was convinced that Schembri and Fenech were working together.

He also admitted giving Fenech a copy of the letter so that Fenech could use it as leverage against Schembri.

After the lunch break, continued her questioning on the letter, noting that the document primarily implicates Keith Schembri despite Theuma never having recorded Schembri.

When de Marco asked if Brincat had advised him to seek help from the police commissioner to sort things out, Theuma denied it, asserting that the commissioner was actually the one seeking information about him.

The questioning also turned to Theuma's claim that both Fenech and Schembri had wanted him dead. De Marco read a 2018 exchange between Theuma and Fenech in which Fenech reassured him: "Mate, nobody will harm you for as long as I'm around."

Theuma said he believed Fenech had not attempted to kill him because he had sent word, through Johann Cremona, that he possessed recordings of him. Without those recordings, he said, "I'd be six feet under."

Another important strand of the morning concerned Theuma's relationship with former police officer Mario Tonna. Theuma acknowledged that he knew Tonna and had asked him whether his phones were being tapped. He also visited Tonna at the police depot shortly after the Degiorgio brothers were arrested in December 2017, because he was worried that investigators would discover a burner phone used in his communications with Alfred Degiorgio.

Theuma said Tonna reassured him and that he believed advice he received from Tonna related to one of the phones used in his illegal lottery operation rather than the murder.

Theuma also admitted visiting Tonna just days after the suspects were arrested, but said he did not tell him about his own involvement in the murder.

The relationship between Theuma and senior government officials was another focus. He confirmed that he had Keith Schembri's phone number and had met him at Yorgen Fenech's Żebbuġ ranch. Yet he maintained that Schembri never mentioned Caruana Galizia.

Theuma also described how he obtained a government job. He insisted that Fenech had arranged the position and that Schembri later told him he did not need to report for work. When his salary was delayed, he contacted Fenech, who promised to intervene.

De Marco suggested that Theuma saw Fenech as a "gravy train". Theuma rejected this, pointing out that Fenech had given him €150,000 to arrange Caruana Galizia's murder and that he had not personally made a cent from the payment.

Theuma's own messages were also put under scrutiny. De Marco produced a message he had sent to his stepdaughter in which he expressed the hope that "she" would die because she could ruin his government cheque. Theuma acknowledged that he was referring to Caruana Galizia and said the exchange probably took place after Fenech had already engaged him as the middleman for the murder.

De Marco further sought to establish Theuma's proximity to criminal figures by questioning him about the burning of a car belonging to his stepdaughter's boyfriend. Theuma initially described it as collateral damage but was confronted with messages in which he had warned his stepdaughter to move the vehicle because "Il-Fulu is involved" and there would be "chaos in the street". He eventually said he had been joking, prompting de Marco to accuse him of lying.

The cross-examination also revisited Theuma's links to people involved in robberies. He denied participating in the 2007 HSBC robbery or other heists, although he acknowledged laundering around €60,000 which he suspected came from criminal activity and exchanging US$3,000 for Darren Debono. He insisted that his criminal involvement was in illegal betting and the murder plot, not the robberies.

In the afternoon, the defence grilled Theuma about his meetings with Kenneth Camilleri, with Theuma maintaining that Keith Schembri sent Camilleri, citing a recording where Fenech allegedly said Schembri would walk through fire for him.

Describing the encounter at his partner's apartment in Żurrieq, Theuma explained that Camilleri arrived in Johann Cremona's car, stepped outside to ask what was wrong, and inquired what had happened to him this time - a remark that prompted De Marco to ask what had occurred previously.

Theuma clarified that it was actually Fenech who had earlier warned him that hitman Vince Muscat was talking to the police, rather than Camilleri breaking that news. 

When De Marco asked who had raised the issue of bail for the Degiorgio brothers in that meeting, Theuma says that it had been him.

Asked how Camilleri, an OPM security official, could possibly arrange bail, Theuma explained that he assumed Schembri had sent him, recounting that Camilleri walked across the road, made a phone call, and then reported back that the hitmen would be getting bail on the 22nd along with one million euros each.

De Marco then pressed Theuma on whether failing to mention Keith Schembri was a condition of his presidential pardon, asking if he only received the deal on the premise of pinning everything on Yorgen Fenech.

Theuma denied this, asserting that he was completely free to name anyone he wanted and chose to name the people genuinely involved. When de Marco pointed out that he was now saying Schembri was not involved, Theuma confirmed that Schembri was one hundred percent not involved, adding that if someone was backing Fenech, Fenech should speak up and say so.

De Marco confronted Theuma over implicating Schembri in a murder when he now admitted it was untrue, to which Theuma acknowledged he had lied because he feared he was going to be betrayed and killed.

Theuma again testified that Cremona had promised to give him a list of questions that the police were going to ask him and that he could strike off questions that he didn't like.  "I never asked for that," Theuma told the court.

Asked about his arrest, which had been due to happen on 16 November but ultimately happened two days before, Theuma said that on 14 November he was told by Fenech and Cremona to clear up everything regarding his illegal lotto and the murder.

"Do you confirm that they raided you earlier because they saw you clearing up your garage in Marsaskala?," De Marco asked. "Yes," Theuma replied.

De Marco asked a pointed question: "So Keith Schembri came from the mess in your head, the police commissioner was you bluffing, and Yorgen Fenech is the mastermind. Is that right?"

Theuma replied: "That's the truth."

He again said that every mention of the Commissioner in the recordings was "bluff" - to which De Marco played another recording where Theuma tells Cremona that he was getting information from that Commissioner.

Speaking about that recording, Theuma said that everything that Cremona told him when it came to police raids turned out to be true.  "It all happened as he said," Theuma said - with the only exception being that he had been told that Ray Aquilina would handle the case; Theuma said he never saw Aquilina at the depot.

De Marco suggested that Theuma was putting words in Cremona's mouth - a suggestion that Theuma denied.  At a question as to why particular conversations hadn't been recorded, Theuma replied: "If I had recorded everything, this case would have been done and dusted ages ago."

De Marco then said that Theuma purposely lowered his voice when he didn't want to be heard on the recordings, like when he mentioned the commissioner - a notion that Theuma completely rejected.

Asked whether he knew he would get a pardon, Theuma said that he had figured he would based on the fact that Vince Muscat was angling at getting one, but he had recordings in hand.

I figured, 'What's Koħħu going to get a pardon for? I have recordings. I have a better chance of getting one'", he told the court.

Proceedings for the day stopped there.  Theuma's cross examination will continue, and likely conclude, on Thursday.