Yorgen Fenech told police following his arrest in November 2019 that Keith Schembri was behind the plot to assassinate Daphne Caruana Galizia, while naming former prime minister Joseph Muscat, Adrian Vella and Johann Cremona as people he claimed knew about it.

The claims emerged as jurors watched footage of Fenech's four-hour police interrogation, which was shown in court on Tuesday morning after Inspector Kurt Zahra returned to the witness stand.

Fenech maintained throughout the questioning that he had not ordered Caruana Galizia's murder and repeatedly rejected suggestions put to him by Zahra that he had instructed middleman Melvin Theuma to arrange the killing.

Instead, he told investigators that the assassination plot had originated with Schembri.

Fenech claimed that Schembri had approached him in 2015 and told him that he had already found someone to kill Caruana Galizia, allegedly paying that person €30,000. When that plan failed, Fenech said, Schembri continued asking him to find someone else.

He also alleged that the issue was discussed during a meal at his Żebbuġ ranch, attended by Theuma, around the time Caruana Galizia had published an article concerning Schembri's illness. Fenech said that, while they were driving home, Theuma told him that it would not take long to get rid of the journalist.

Fenech told police that he found it "disgraceful" that he was being questioned while Schembri was not, and accused the police of shielding him.

He also brought Joseph Muscat into his account of events.

According to Fenech, Muscat had summoned him to Castille together with Schembri and asked whether he knew Theuma and whether Schembri was mentioned in recordings made by Theuma. Fenech said Muscat had warned him that a series of police raids targeting Theuma was inevitable.

Fenech later told Zahra that three people were "one hundred percent" aware that Schembri wanted Caruana Galizia killed. He named Muscat, Adrian Vella and Johann Cremona.

He claimed Muscat had summoned him because he knew Fenech's phone was being tapped and wanted to establish whether Fenech trusted Theuma.

Fenech also told investigators that Cremona had been brought into the affair by Schembri and, according to Fenech, knew that Schembri had been asking him since 2014 to find someone to eliminate Caruana Galizia.

Zahra openly challenged Fenech's version of events, telling him at one point: "You're not making sense!"

The inspector questioned why Theuma had approached Fenech with a €120,000 figure if, as Fenech claimed, he did not know that Theuma was looking for someone to kill the journalist. Fenech nevertheless maintained that Schembri had indirectly prompted him to find someone for him.

The interrogation then moved onto the money allegedly paid in connection with the murder.

Fenech confirmed that he had handed Theuma €150,000 on one occasion when he picked him up from the airport. When Zahra asked directly whether the money was payment to have Caruana Galizia killed, Fenech said that was what Theuma claimed, before asking to leave the issue for later because he was uncomfortable discussing it.

Fenech also acknowledged that he had told Schembri about the €120,000 fee and had received what he described as an instruction to proceed, using the phrase "mexxi, mexxi, mexxi".

He claimed, however, that he had been acting under pressure from Theuma, whom he accused of blackmailing him.

Fenech said Theuma had repeatedly demanded money and claimed that he had started using drugs after Theuma began blackmailing him. He also told investigators that he had felt severely threatened, including after Theuma allegedly placed a gun on a table during one meeting.
Fenech told police that Schembri had also been involved in attempts to manage the situation after Theuma began demanding more money.

He said Schembri had sent Kenneth Camilleri to speak to Theuma over a bail issue and claimed Schembri had been terrified after Theuma told Camilleri he was carrying a revolver. The interrogation footage also showed Fenech describing an alleged plan to get him out of Malta.

He said a trip to Gozo with Adrian Vella had been presented to him as an ordinary journey, but that Vella later returned to Malta to collect Fenech's brother Franco and Fenech's passport. Fenech claimed the plan, which he attributed to Schembri, was to take him to Tunisia and give him time to assemble a legal team.

Zahra later told the court that both Vella and Schembri had denied any such plan.

Fenech told investigators that he had spoken to Schembri for around 30 minutes before attempting to leave Malta on his yacht on the day of his arrest. He denied intending to flee the country.

Fenech told Zahra that he was upset because, in his view, the attitude of investigators had become hostile as soon as he began "telling the truth" and mentioning Schembri.

He then repeated his claim that three people knew Schembri was responsible, naming Muscat, Vella and Cremona, and saying they had all found out after the fact.

The afternoon session continued with the jury hearing the fourth, and final, part of Fenech's interrogation back in November 2019.

Zahra resumed the questioning by asking Fenech to elaborate on his previous claim that Joseph Muscat, Adrian Vella, and Johann Cremona definitely knew Keith Schembri was behind the assassination.

Fenech clarified that they knew Schembri's entire involvement from start to finish, believing they were unaware before the murder but learned over the two years that followed that Fenech had nothing to do with it and was only covering for Schembri.

Asked how he knew they were aware, Fenech said that Vella had brought him scripts and taken him to Gozo, and that Cremona knew through Theuma and Kenneth Camilleri and was also conversing with Schembri directly.

As for Muscat, he said that the Prime Minister summoned him twice: once privately at a party in Girgenti, and then again soon after at Castille, where Schembri was also present. At Girgenti, Fenech claimed that Muscat asked him whether he trusted Theuma, and at Castille, Fenech said that Muscat told him that a raid on Theuma had to be carried out an instructed him to advise Theuma so that nothing is found.

That Castille meeting, Fenech said, was put together by Schembri, and during that Muscat allegedly said that Theuma had to be arrested by summer 2019.  Theuma was eventually arrested in November 2019. 

Both the meeting in Girgenti and at Castille took place in January or February of 2019, Fenech said.

Zahra asked Fenech why the Prime Minister would be asking him about all of this if he wasn't involved in the murder, and Fenech replied that it was because Theuma was naming him in his recordings.

Asked whether Theuma had given him some recordings, Fenech said that he had never listened to them, but that Theuma had once said "try mess with me and you'll find out" as a threat.

"Why did the prime minister have to tell you about the raid? You have no control over the raid," Zahra asked Fenech, to which the businessman replied that his job was to "prepare Melvin" so that nothing useful would be found by investigators from the raid.

Zahra asked Fenech why he wouldn't mention this version with the Prime Minister involved at any point, to which Fenech replied that if one is asking for a pardon from someone, they would try to avoid that same person in it.

"It's also out of a sense of responsibility. It's not nice to reach the point where you mention the prime minister of a country," Fenech said.  "But I have to defend myself and tell the truth," he added.  Here he banged his head on the table.

"Let me be clear, I'm not saying the prime minister was involved in the plot nor that he knew beforehand. But he knew afterwards and spoke to me twice," Fenech said.

Fenech was then questioned during the interrogation by his own lawyer Marion Camilleri, who was accompanying him.

To her, he said that he had never met Daphne in his life. Zahra pointed out that, according to Theuma, Fenech had said that she would be publishing a story about him.

"No. Did she ever publish anything about me?," Fenech questioned back, to which Zahra mentioned 17 Black.  Fenech however said that Daphne's allegation had been that the company belonged to John Dalli.

On how he knew that his phone was being tapped, Fenech said that both Schembri and Muscat had told him at one of those two meetings. "He told me 'stay sharp because they're listening to you too'," Fenech said.

Camilleri then focused her questions on Fenech's allegation that Theuma had blackmailed him. She asked him why he had continued talking to Theuma despite knowing that he was being recording, to which Fenech said that he felt threatened.

Fenech said that he had tried to cut contact with Theuma in 2016 by engaging other taxi drivers when he needed, but Theuma would still contact him and ask why he wasn't using his services. "I figured I should be careful. Keep your enemies closer," Fenech said.

Fenech told interrogators that he was ready to "uncover what there is in this country, with proof of bank transactions and details of events."

He told Zahra that he had asked for a confrontation with Vella, Theuma, and Schembri while under arrest, and that he had asked for a pardon but investigators didn't even ask him what he was offering in terms of information, instead choosing to rely on "Keith Schembri's version of events."

Zahra said that Fenech could give his own version at any point he wished.

"I am very sad. I used to be proud to be Maltese but I no longer am because this is an evil cover-up. But I am convinced the truth will emerge," Fenech said.

With that, his interrogation came to an end.

Back to the present day, Zahra testified on the witness stand that there were several inconsistencies in Fenech's statements.

Firstly, Zahra said, Fenech had never informed the police about any threats against him, even though at the time he had a close relationship with Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta.

The prosecution exhibited messages of Theuma texting Fenech prior to his arrest telling him: "At least don't touch my family. Don't hurt my family."

Zahra also pointed out inconsistencies in Fenech's account of the meeting with Muscat at Girgenti.  Fenech told interrogators that he and Muscat spoke in a private room, but text messages from after the party show Fenech telling Muscat that he had been shy and did not want to approach him as he was surrounded by people.

Zahra testified that Fenech's statements on the earlier aborted plan to have Caruana Galizia killed made little sense, likewise with Fenech's suggestion that this plan was resurrected in 2016, as records show that the burner phones used were only first switched on in August 2017.

Zahra said that the financial amounts mentioned by Theuma and Fenech in their respective testimonies broadly matched, with the amount paid out at around €400,000 to €450,000, including money intended for Degorgios.

On the circumstances surrounding Fenech's arrest, Zahra said that investigators found a string of chats which, taken together with the circumstances of his arrest, pointed to an attempt to make a run for it.

The trial will continue on Wednesday morning.