Malta’s investigators are yet to accept an FBI invitation to help the investigations into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Lead Homicide Inspector Keith Arnaud has confirmed to a constitutional court.

On the second anniversary of Caruana Galizia’s murder, FBI investigators offered to return to Malta to help police in the case anyway it can.

“We are yet to take the FBI on their offer. We didn’t need the FBI as we already had Europol on the case,” Arnaud told the court.

The FBI had assisted the Maltese police in the early stages of the investigation, using triangulation and other methods to trace the locations of the three murder suspects through their mobile phones. The suspects, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, were arrested in December 2017 and are awaiting trial.

“Following the Maltese government’s initial request for assistance, we supported our Maltese partners in the investigation that led to three arrests so far. We stand ready to support the investigation in any way we can if requested by Maltese authorities,” the US Embassy in Malta had said in a statement.

Arnaud was testifying in Yorgen Fenech’s case to have him removed from the Caruana Galizia investigation.

Fenech has testified that the Prime Minister’s former Chief of Staff Schembri kept him regularly updated on the investigation (including the dates of the arrest of the three men charged with carrying out the crime) and that the information was coming straight from Arnaud, an allegation that Schembri has denied.