Statistician Vincent Marmara has rejected allegations that a survey he carried out on the eve of Yorgen Fenech's trial, financed by Fenech's uncle, Raymond Fenech, targeted potential jurors within Fenech's recently concluded trial by jury.
The survey centred around public sentiment on the case as a whole, including on sentiment towards Yorgen Fenech, Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the investigation carried out within this case.
Marmara issued a statement on Facebook on Sunday morning to clarify this situation. He noted that "In the past few hours, incorrect statements have been made against me, which I will not tolerate going unaddressed."
The statistician rebuked allegations that this survey targeted persons who were on the list of potential jurors for Yorgen Fenech's trial. He insisted that those contacted for this survey were determined through a random number generator that generated "completely random" sets of 8-digit numbers to form telephone/mobile numbers. Marmara said that through this process, many numbers were generated that were not existing phone numbers. In addition, people contacted were free to choose to not participate in this survey, he noted.
He asserted that no potential jurors or "any particular section of the Maltese population" was targeted in this survey's methodology.
"The research I conduct is never designed or conducted in a way that leads to the identification of any individual. In fact, any statistics or information I pass on to my clients is presented only in an aggregated format," Marmara said.
Marmara wrote that "If this had been found to be true, the necessary steps would certainly have been taken by the authorities, something that did not happen. In fact, what I am saying has also been verified by the relevant authorities."
These allegations have notably been made public this weekend by lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who was part of the prosecution team within Fenech's trial.
On Saturday, Times of Malta published that Marmara was commissioned to carry out this survey - the third of its kind, following previous editions in 2021 and 2023 - on the eve of Fenech's trial. By this point, the list of potential jurors had already been published, leading to Judge Edwina Grima to chastise the defence team, who vetted the questions beforehand, for not disclosing that this survey had been conducted.
Marmara said that he fully cooperated with police to explain the full situation behind this survey upon questioning three months ago. It is understood that he was not detained by law enforcement at any point.
Another allegation denied by the statistician is that, while conducting this survey, he utilised the name of another individual and company to deceive all persons contacted. "This is a LIE because I never use the names of other individuals or other people's companies," he said.
Marmara stated that "research like this on criminal trials are carried out all over the world" and that "it is a normal practice." He mentioned that he is limited in what else he can share on this, since this matter is now bound by court secrecy following a court order.
"Research has no faces. This is my profession, which I offer to everyone, built on independence, objectivity, ethics and the scientific method. These are the principles that have guided me in my work to date and that will continue to guide me in the future," he said.
Marmara ended his statement by appealing for everyone commenting on this situation to limit themselves to the facts at hand, while reserving the general public's right to comment on what has happened.