Judge Puts Off Decision On Removal Of Investigator In Caruana Galizia Case Until Keith Schembri Phone Inquiry Is Concluded
A judge has opted not to hand down a decision in a case by Yorgen Fenech to have the lead investigator in the Caruana Galizia murder case removed and to wait for the completion of a magisterial inquiry before doing so.
In his case, which was instituted by Fenech shortly after his arrest in 2019, the murder suspect argues that Keith Arnaud should be removed from the case over his alleged links to former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.
Judgment in the case was due to be handed down earlier this summer but Fenech’s lawyers submitted a request calling for it to be delayed and for the court to call on the police to submit data obtained from Schembri’s phone in the case.
The former chief of staff had claimed that he lost his phone when he was interrogated by the police about his potential role in the assassination or its cover-up. Fenech’s lawyers claimed that the phone included information that would prove their client’s case.
The court initially called upon the police to present any data from the phone in court, but last month, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa testified and clarified that the phone in the police’s possession was not the one allegedly lost by Schembri, but the phone he used afterwards.
He also noted that the phone in question was the subject of a magisterial inquiry and could therefore not legally be made public in order not to prejudice the ongoing proceedings.
Gafa called upon the court to withdraw its decree, describing Fenech’s request as a fishing expedition.
The court ultimately observed that the case was centred around Fenech’s right to a fair hearing and therefore all information available needed to be considered in the case.
It said it had no option but to postpone judgment once again and wait for the inquiry to be concluded.
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