Former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar says investigators in the Daphne Caruana Galizia case were made aware that he met with an associate of state witness Melvin Theuma to ask about suspected recordings soon after doing so.

Speaking to Lovin Malta following Theuma’s testimony, Cutajar confirmed that he met with Theuma’s friend Edwin ‘Il-Gojja’ Brincat sometime in 2019 while serving as police commissioner. 

Echoing what Theuma said under oath, Cutajar said that Brincat called the meeting to see if he would help in sorting out a traffic fine. At the meeting, Cutajar asked Brincat whether he was aware of the secret recordings Theuma had taken of main suspect Yorgen Fenech.

Theuma told the court last Monday that Brincat then came to him with the information and warned:

“Keep your eyes on the ball. If the Commissioner knows, the police know.”

Cutajar has since been suspended from his government consultancy role until “the facts are clarified”. However, he insists that investigators were informed of the meeting soon after it took place.

“I tried to discover where the recordings were, that’s all,” he said.

Cutajar confirmed that he is yet to questioned by police on revelations, once again saying that they were well aware of his operations.

“Investigators know that I met with him and what was discussed. I’ll only be able to tell them things on stuff they already know,” he said.

The Times of Malta has reported that Cutajar may have tipped Theuma off about his impending arrest. However, this was denied by Theuma who said that while he was aware of imminent arrest on 16th November 2019, the information came directly from Yorgen Fenech.

Theuma has said under oath that Fenech said he acquired these details from former Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and the former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta.

These claims have also been vociferously denied by Cutajar.

Cutajar was removed from his post as Police Commissioner earlier this year. He was subject to criticism from activists who believed he failed to tackle major corruption issues. Cutajar was handed the government consultancy upon his resignation.

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