Castille official Neville Gafa held another meeting with Keith Schembri at the former chief of staff’s home this evening but has said this was on a purely friendship basis.

Gafa, who works as a coordinator within the Office of the Prime Minister, has regularly been spotted visiting Schembri’s home in recent days but he insisted there is nothing unusual about this as the two have been friends for years.

“Good friends don’t let each other down,” he told Lovin Malta.

Schembri recently resigned as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff after Yorgen Fenech implicated him in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. He was arrested but subsequently released without charge.

In court today, Fenech testified under oath that Schembri had given him confidential information about the investigation into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, which Fenech has been charged with.

Amongst other things, Fenech said that Schembri had informed him that his phone was being tapped and had shown him a copy of the pardon that was granted to suspected middleman Melvin Theuma.

Yesterday, Theuma said that a Castille official had visited him to instruct him to inform the three men charged with carrying out the murder that they were going to be bailed out. The official was later named as Kenneth Camilleri, a former security guard of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Questioned about these accusations, Gafa said that he doesn’t believe Fenech and that time will tell that the businessman is lying.

“I stand by Keith’s version of events,” he said.