Malta’s new Attorney General gave the green light to keep former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta, who has been named as a potential leak of sensitive details on the Daphne Carurana Galizia case to his good friend Yorgen Fenech, on the investigation into the journalist’s murder.

Testifying at this morning’s sitting of the public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination, former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar revealed that Victoria Buttigieg had advised police against removing Valletta from the investigation, despite major conflict of interest issues raised by Caruana Galizia’s family, namely his marriage to former Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana.

The constitutional court would agree with the family eventually, booting Valletta out of the investigation.

It has since been revealed that Valletta features heavily in state witness Melvin Theuma’s secret recordings. He is named by both Theuma and Fenech as being a potential major leak in the Caruana Galizia investigation.

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

Valletta, who is referred to as “Valletta l-oħxon” in Theuma’s secret recordings of Fenech, was leading the case into the assassination until he was forcibly removed by court order.

He was the one who set up unprecedented briefings with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff Keith Schembri on the case. The briefings started soon after the murder and continued up until a month before Theuma’s arrest.

Valletta was revealed to have held intimate dinners with Fenech and to have gone abroad with him on at least two occasions. Meanwhile, there exists a video of Valletta “fooling around” in Fenech’s Rolls Royce.

Despite the issues, Cutajar insisted that he still had faith in Valletta.

Buttigieg was only appointed yesterday to the role of AG having previously served as the country’s first ever State Advocate. However, worrying claims have emerged.

Yesterday, Caruana Galizia’s son Matthew Caruana Galizia published an email exchange showing Buttigieg allegedly allowing disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi’s signature on the Electrogas Security of Supply Agreement to bypass parliament and cabinet.

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