Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1281593
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 AUGUST 2020 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But it turned out that Vincent Mus- cat had never instructed Azzopardi on such a decision, and Arnaud was duly informed that this was not what Muscat had wished. In comments to MaltaToday, Azzopar- di insisted that he "definitely did not tell Arnaud that his client was reneging on the statement that Theuma was the mid- dleman". Arthur Azzopardi also said that when he had gone to Arnaud, it was to inform him that he was no longer Muscat's law- yer. When asked why he had chosen to drop Muscat's brief, Azzopardi said that this was a confidential matter and he could not answer. But back in late October 2019, Azzo- pardi had claimed the decision to drop Muscat's brief had been a decision per- taining to his legal partnership and taken together with his partners. It turns out that in April 2018, Vincent Muscat had asked for a pardon in return for revealing details on 15 major crimes including murders, car bombs and heists. He had also offered details of the Caru- ana Galizia murder, hinting at Melvin Theuma as the middleman; and it ap- pears this was the first time that the po- lice had been given the name of the man who had served Yorgen Fenech in can- vassing for the hit-men who murdered Caruana Galizia. Muscat had also told Arnaud that the bomb used for the Caruana Galizia mur- der was one of several devices that had been imported, with similar bombs still in circulation. It was after this meeting, sources tell MaltaToday, that Theuma started mak- ing mobile phone recordings of all his encounters and meetings with people connected to Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri. Two days after Muscat had told Arnaud on 23 April, 2018 that he would coop- erate with the police in return for the pardon, the two incarcerated brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio informed their own family members that Muscat was dishing the dirt on the murder and other crimes. But Muscat's request for a pardon then was not only ignored but simply buried and disregarded by the po- lice commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, as well as Attorney General Peter Grech; even the Office of the Prime Minister at that point was made aware of Mus- cat's willingness to spill the beans, but snubbed his request for a pardon. When news of Muscat's request for a pardon, and the revelation of a middle- man made the news in 2019, only weeks later Azzopardi dropped his brief for Muscat, leaving the suspect in an invid- ious position as the weakest link in the chain of alleged murderers. Only recently, Arthur Azzopardi was acting as defence lawyer for Robert Agi- us, one of 10 men who were arrested in connection with the Caruana Galizia investigations, along with his brother Adrian Agius, and released on bail. Rob- ert Agius, 36, known by family nickname 'tal-Maksar', was acquitted in June 2020 of drug trafficking charges dating back to 2012 after a court found there was noth- ing to prove he had a part in any conspir- acy. The Agius brothers were released and never charged but court testimony given by murder middleman Melvin Theuma shows how he had been sent by Yorgen Fenech to the Maksar brothers, who al- legedly made the bomb. Muscat, 57, was charged in December 2017 along with brothers George Degior- gio 'ic-Ciniz' and Alfred Degiorgio 'il-Fu- lu', with the murder of Caruana Galizia on 16 October 2017. Azzopardi dropped Kohhu brief shortly after Arnaud meeting