Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1330252
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 JANUARY 2021 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Earlier this week, Fenech's lawyers travelled to Amsterdam to listen to the recordings captured by the one-time fu- gitive from justice, a teenage scam artist who spent a few years in Malta staying at the Hilton. MaltaToday has established that the lawyers of the Dutch inmate consented that he share recordings in which Theu- ma would have confided to him that he feared for his life, name-dropping Keith Schembri and his interest in the Caruana Galizia investigation. The lawyers told MaltaToday they will neither confirm or deny the claims, say- ing they were respecting a court decree ordering parties not to comment on the proceedings of the case. In this bizarre twist of events, the Dutch inmate – who was sentenced to 24 months in prison last October – walked right into the timeline of the Caruana Galizia investigation after striking up some sort of friendship with Theuma. MaltaToday understands that Theuma, who ran the lucrative white-taxi stand outside the Hilton Portomaso, was on speaking terms with the then-teenager, who ran away from the Netherlands to Malta in 2016 with thousands in cash he made in an affiliate-marketing scam. It turns out that Theuma confided in the Dutch teen – a fixture at Portomaso as he burnt through the cash he amassed from a series of internet cons – and blurted out his concerns about his fate at the hands of Keith Schembri. The newspaper is unable to ascertain the extent of these conversations, record- ed between the end of 2018 and begin- ning of 2019, a period in which Theuma could have been nervous about having been identified as the middleman by trig- german Vincent Muscat 'il-Koħħu'. The recordings appear to have been giv- en credence by Fenech's defence team, which visited the inmate in the Dutch penitentiary earlier this week to hear the recordings, believing these could have implications for Theuma's presidential pardon as well as Yorgen Fenech's case. Despite the alleged content of the re- cordings, MaltaToday's research into the Dutch man's past reveals a troubling string of cons and fraud. Late last year he was found guilty by a Dutch court of having scammed unsuspecting victims by posing as a bailiff, or even demanding ransoms by claiming he had kidnapped the relatives of hospital workers. In 2016 he was convicted for fraud. He was reported by gaming industry insid- ers of having solicited thousands in cash on a fake affiliate marketing scheme. He then fled to Malta, setting up base in the Hilton Portomaso and later other hotels. He was finally arrested in December 2019 at the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen, having spent the previous months moving between Malta, Germa- ny and Denmark. Even when he was arrested and referred to a psychological examination by re- quest of the public prosecutor, he was said to have deceived the psychologist by fabricating a disorder in a bid to receive a lower sentence. A court report seen by MaltaToday states he had been previously diagnosed with a form of autism and had already been involved in scams in his high school years. Dutch fraudster struck up 'friendship' with Melvin Theuma at Portomaso Melvin Theuma: a Dutch prison inmate has shared recordings of him with Yorgen Fenech lawyers MATTHEW AGIUS THE Commission on Gender-based Vi- olence has demanded Robert Musume- ci apologise to women, over a comment on gender quotas that the Labour gov- ernment consultant made on Facebook. Commissioner Audrey Friggieri ex- pressed disappointment at his social media comment about identifying "likeable, unpretentious and popular" female participants in politics, calling it an example of the "violence of pa- triarchal and colonial discourse that infiltrates people's attitudes towards women and their capabilities." Musumeci made the comment in the context of an online debate on gender quotas in parliament, where he sug- gested that Labour leader Robert Ab- ela would be scouting for "sympathet- ic women without any pretensions." The resulting backlash led to a string of backtracking and explanatory posts by Musumeci. In a Facebook post, the Commission uploaded a screenshot of the wildly controversial Musumeci comment, with the caption "Misogyny raises its head once again! A privileged man who obviously assumes that he him- self is 'likeable and unpretentious' describes the qualities that a wom- an should have so as to be politically valid, according to him." Essential qualities for political life were "far more substantial than these frivolities he is mentioning," the Commission went on, pointing out that there were many women who were "supremely capable, intelligent, responsible, possessing integrity and the all gifts necessary, apart from be- ing 'likeable.'" Describing Musumeci's words as op- pressive, the Commission said they did not deserve to be said, much less be tolerated. "Us women deserve an apology from you, Mr. Musumeci. This, too is violence." Musumeci Facebook comment on gender quotas called out by domestic violence commissioner Likeable and unpretentious? Robert Musumeci's Facebook comment on gender quotas fired up the internet yesterday