Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1356256
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 MARCH 2021 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In his statement to police, Fenech insist- ed he wanted a confrontation with Schem- bri, and claimed that Joseph Muscat had spoken to him twice about the Melvin Theuma tapes – something Muscat had denied back in June 2020. "Everything started from Keith… it is shameful that Keith is not here," Fenech told police in the first of his statements. "The police are doing everything to cov- er up for Schembri. I have offered police information that involves millions, huge millions in corruption, and three days in the police does not want to hear me out. The police does not want to hear me out," Fenech told them. The suspect was emphatic in claiming he could tell police of "millions in euros that involve Keith Schembri" and alleged cor- ruption. Fenech accused Schembri of having, since 2015, repeatedly asked him or goad- ed him into having Caruana Galizia killed. "He wanted me, and he asked me, if there was a way of killing Caruana Galizia… and there is another person who knows Keith ordered this murder," he told police. When asked by the police, Fenech said: "The Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, sir." 'Schembri wanted to get rid of her' Fenech claimed that after 2014, Schem- bri had "tried many times… he would come to my house every day. We were intimate friends, I'd say he was almost my brother… Keith was irked and wanted to get rid of Caruana Galizia. But I never ac- tively sought out someone to do it, at the time we were not this kind of people… in 2015 he told me he had found someone to do this job and that he gave him €30,000." Fenech claimed Schembri told him Caruana Galizia was being watched ahead of the hit. "I told him, 'you're mad' (qed tiġġennen). But we didn't talk about it as much. After some time he told me the plan fell apart. So he had paid €30,000 for that." Fenech however alleged Schembri was always encouraging him to help him carry out the murder. "There was a time where he kept telling me, 'help me, help me, help me… let's find someone to get rid of her because she can't keep going on this way'… towards October, November 2016 Keith had a medical problem and we went together to America, came back and had this meal at our razzett in Zebbug. "We started talking, there were my cous- ins at this meal. And there was Melvin Theuma at this meal. The talk turned to Caruana Galizia in a sort of casual way and then turned to Keith saying how he want- ed her dead. Obviously, to me [Keith] was a person who she had hurt, I was great friends with him, he loved my kids and I still think he does to this day, we were just like a family. "On our way home, Melvin Theuma drove me home and said: 'I spoke to some friends… a plan is brewing to kill Caruana Galizia'. He didn't tell me who they were, just people he trusted. I had no interest in knowing. I said 'we'll talk later'. "At the time I was travelling to London back and forth, and when I came back Melvin picked me up and told me, 'I spoke to my friends and your share will be €120,000, there are others behind it'. I told that we would talk later about it." Fenech was categorical in accusing Schembri of having ordered the murder. "On the homicide, Keith would tell me continuously… I mean, Daphne attacked him a lot personally as well as the govern- ment, and sometimes he would tell me, 'I want to get rid of her, she causes me so much trouble, etc, etc…'" Alleged Castille meeting Fenech repeatedly claimed with police that Muscat was aware of the Melvin Theuma recordings and that he inquired as to whether they implicated Keith Schembri. Muscat has categorically de- nied this claim when asked by The Times last year. "I don't know if he knew before, but he knew after for sure. The Prime Minister in January of this year [2019] asked for me at Castille… there was Keith. He asked me about what was happening because he was worried about Melvin Theuma, and he asked me if I trusted him and I said 'no'." Fenech said that he had told Muscat: "No I don't trust Melvin because I know he is recording." Fenech claimed Muscat asked him many times if Schembri was mentioned in the recordings. "I answered: 'I have tried many times, many times and I have tried. I tried to protect Keith from this'." Fenech also claimed with police that Muscat had mentioned that Theuma would have to be raided by police because of pressure from abroad. Muscat has al- ready denied having had any knowledge of the raids on Theuma that took place in November 2019 when he was arrested and the tapes were discovered. "He told me there was no other way but for this raid to take place, that the raid had to be done with the excuse of [Theuma's] illegal lotto, since Theuma was talking about these recordings, so the police had to raid him on the lotto, but search under- cover [sic] for these tapes. And he told me to speak to Theuma so that he makes sure these recordings are not found when the raid happens. And then the PM spoke to me another time at Girgenti on 27 Janu- ary. I went to a party and he spoke to me privately at Girgenti, in a first-floor room." 'Theuma is blabbing' Fenech was emphatic in his statement when stopped by interrogators that he wanted to talk about Muscat's alleged knowledge of the tapes. "The Prime Minister sent for me because I knew Melvin Theuma. I knew I was being investigated, that my phone was tapped – 100% – because Keith told me that my mobile phone was being tapped, and he warned me, to pay attention to what I say on my mobile phone, and I felt I had noth- ing to be careful about because I did not do anything wrong. "[Muscat] asked me about Melvin Theu- ma and said: 'he is blabbing [qed iparla fil-vojt] on the mobile phone and you will have problems with him. Do you trust him?' And I said: 'I don't trust him… be- cause he was recording me.' Theuma was blabbing and threatening." Fenech again reiterated that he felt he had been called to attention by Muscat be- cause of the impending raid on Theuma. At the time, in 2019, Theuma was al- ready a person of interest known to police investigators as well as Europol, after hit- man Vincent Muscat had told police that Theuma was the middleman in the assas- sination. "[Muscat] had told me the raid had to be after the summer. And that's what hap- pened. It happened on the lotto, it had to take place on a Saturday as I was informed by Keith… everyone was prepared for that raid so as not to find the recordings that implicate Keith. This is a fact," Fenech had told police. Police interrogators then asked Fenech why he was mentioning Muscat only now after having first accused Chris Cardona and Schembri. "I tell you why: am I going to mention him when I have to ask him for a pardon? Do I ask for a pardon from the person I am implicating?" Fenech claimed to have dirt on 'huge millions in corruption' Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff to Joseph Muscat, is facing charges of corruption over a printing press facility for Progress Press