Former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri has been able to listen to state witness Melvin Theuma’s secret recordings of Yorgen Fenech “over and over”. 

Schembri confirmed in today’s sitting in the police’s case against Fenech over the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that he was first shown the tapes while under arrest.

“I deny claims in the recordings that I was involved. That’s not true, there’s a lot of confusion and lies in those recordings,” Schembri said.

“How do you know about the recordings?” Magistrate Montebello asked. 

“Yes, they were played out to me when I was under arrest in connection with the crime. I’ve listened to them over and over because I have a DVD copy of my interrogation,” he replied.

Fenech was not granted the same privileges, with his lawyers regularly fighting to have access to all the evidence available. It took months for them to be given a copy.

Schembri has been name-dropped throughout Theuma’s secret recordings of Fenech. At several points in time, Fenech claims that he was fed information on the investigation directly from Schembri and former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta.

These details included the arrest of the three men charged with carrying out the murder, a potential pardon to murder suspect Vince Muscat, information that their phones were wiretapped, and that Chris Cardona’s number was allegedly discovered on the phone of one of Daphne’s killers.

Schembri denied all the claims today. He was arrested in connection with the crime on 27th November and was released a few days later, but he remains firmly under investigation. In a previous sitting, Chief Homicide Inspector Keith Arnaud said Schembri was under investigation over a litany of offences which include:

Tampering with evidence, leaking extensive information about the investigation, obstructing justice, and acquiring a phantom job for middleman Melvin Theuma.

What do you think of the revelation? Comment below