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2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 OCTOBER 2020 NEWS Delivery fee of just €1 per day for orders up to 5 newspapers per address To subscribe 1. Email us your choice of newspapers, recipient's name, address, contact number to production @millermalta.com 2. Forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address: Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1814 Queries on other news- papers and magazines, production@ millermalta.com maltatoday Same-day delivery of your favourite Sunday newspaper Monday-Friday MaltaToday Midweek • €1 BusinessToday • €1.50 Sunday MaltaToday • €1.95 ILLUM • €1.25 Support your favourite newspaper with a subscription https://bit.ly/2X9csmr CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "I'm calling to tell you... that when you speak, you mention his [Fenech's] name... so if you have to make someone hear it, his name is heard... And men- tion Kenneth [Camilleri's] name, mention it... so they can hear themselves being mentioned, so you get their names on it... and say 'qabbadtni' (you recruited me)... all words that will work against him... keep it mind." The hardened Brincat listened impassively to the phone taps as they were played out to him by lead investigators Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra, to which he re- leased no comment when repeat- edly questioned on the content. A resolute Arnaud appealed to Brincat's concern for Theuma, a long-time friend, warning him that he had "helped Theuma pre- pare the proof." "If it results that Theuma has been lying, the pardon is dropped, and it will be used against him as the middleman in the assassina- tion." But Brincat refused to answer any of the suggestions or ques- tions put to him on his role in coaching Theuma. "What did you know on the case?" Arnaud asked Theuma. "I'm going to make you hear what you told Theuma, about his prob- lem, his issues between the ones in prison and Yorgen Fenech." With Brincat refusing to an- swer, Arnaud and Zahra insisted that the phone tap was carried out before Theuma had gone to meet Yorgen Fenech. "Do you want us to say that you framed Yorgen Fenech?" "Isn't this your advice to a friend? You didn't break the law by telling him to record the con- versation... it was after the mur- der..." The investigators suggested to Brincat that if he does not an- swer, he could be made to answer for the suggestion that he framed up Fenech. "I can't tell you what to do... who is your lawyer?" Brincat, who had refused to have his lawyer accompany him for the interrogation, replied that his legal counsel was Ama- deus Cutajar. "Tell him to come here. Tell him we're asking you to corroborate the advice you gave Melvin Theuma, that way you get to clarify Theuma's position." MaltaToday understands that Brincat refused to answer all questions put to him by the po- lice. It is not known yet how many times Brincat was interrogated on the matter by the police after the November 2019 questioning. Bribery allegation Ex-police commissioner Law- rence Cutajar – who is known to have met Brincat allegedly for information on Melvin Theuma before the November 2019 arrest – was supposed to be formally investigated following allegations that he tipped off the self-con- fessed middleman in the Caruana Galizia murder about ongoing in- vestigations. The suggestion of police col- lusion has been formally men- tioned in court evidence when Johann Cremona, a business as- sociate of Yorgen Fenech, said Theuma had been tipped off by Cutajar that he was being inves- tigated over money laundering. It was the money laundering ar- rest in November 2019, which Theuma was anxious about, that pushed him to reveal the record- ings to the murder investigators and which prompted the arrest of Yorgen Fenech. Cremona claimed Cutajar had told Theuma that Europol knew of his recordings and that Theu- ma had even played recordings to Cutajar before the arrest. On his part, Brincat insisted in open court that Cutajar and Theuma did not know each other. But according to a recorded phone conversation between Theuma and Cremona, the middleman intended to pass on €15,000 to Cutajar in his bid to obtain a presidential pardon, ahead of his money laundering arrest. The claim was made by Theu- ma in one of the conversations he is believed to have recorded se- cretly. Theuma is heard saying he had given €15,000 to Brincat so that Cutajar could "take the case and go on holiday". "I went to give him the money myself," Theuma is heard saying of the alleged bribe. "I told him, 'shall I give them to you in pack- ets of €5,000?'." "I told Edwin, I asked him if he wants the cash in packets of five… he said he would take no cash from me, not even if I paid him a shilling a time, because all he wanted is that I get the par- don." Theuma was a loan shark who ran a profitable taxi system out- side the Hilton with the bless- ing of Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, for whom he acted as a gopher and occasional chauffeur. On his part, Cremona himself suggests in the recorded con- versations of having the capacity to influence the police's actions through his "power to speak to Kenneth [Camilleri]" – an MSS security officer detailed at the Of- fice of the Prime Minister, whom Joseph Muscat's former chief of staff Keith Schembri would send to speak to Theuma. "You know from where that is coming." Lawrence Cutajar insisted he never knew or spoke to Theuma, and never accepted money in ex- change for information. Now un- der investigation after court tes- timony suggesting that he tipped off Theuma about a police raid, Cutajar had claimed on Xtra that Theuma was bluffing in his con- versations with Cremona. Cutajar, who admitted meeting Edwin Brincat allegedly to obtain information on the recordings Theuma was harbouring, claims his interactions were done with the sole intention of obtaining Theuma's recordings. "When Edwin Brincat came to me, I took the opportunity to try to get something from him. That's what I decided at that time, and I asked him if he knew where these recordings might be. I felt at that moment that I should take the chance," Cutajar said, denying having taken any money from Brincat. However, it is apparent that some form of communication between police top brass was taking place with Castille, at least through the agency of Kenneth Camilleri. The recorded conver- sations between Cremona and Theuma discuss the rejection of a pardon for Vince Muscat 'il- Kohhu' – arrested in December 2019 and accused of having been part of the murder team. Theuma also claimed it was the police commissioner who told him, or perhaps through a third party, that Interpol were asking the Maltese police why he (Theu- ma) had not yet been arrested. Cremona retorts, saying that it is likely untrue that Interpol were knocking on the police's door. "I think the Commissioner wants money," he tells Theuma. "Do you want us to say that you framed Yorgen Fenech?" Ex-police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar – who is known to have met Brincat allegedly for information on Melvin Theuma before the November 2019 arrest – was supposed to be formally investigated following allegations that he tipped off the self-confessed middleman in the Caruana Galizia murder about ongoing investigations