Melvin Theuma Asks Court To Include State As Defendant In Caruana Galizia Damages Case
The self-confessed middleman in the plot to assassinate journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has requested that the State be included in a case filed by the late journalist’s family in which it is requesting compensation from those involved in her murder.
Last year the family filed a court application seeking compensation for moral and material damages from the three assassins – Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vince Muscat – as well as alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech, and Theuma.
Damages recovered would be diverted to the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, to allow it to reach its objectives of ensuring justice in the murder case, protecting investigative journalists and public interest litigation, among others.
In a court application filed on Monday, Theuma asked the court to add the State – as represented by the Prime Minister, the State Advocate, the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner – as defendants in the case.
Theuma’s application was submitted days after the publication of the report from the public inquiry into the journalist’s murder, which found the state to have been indirectly responsible for the assassination.
Theuma argued that the family could not have known what the outcome of the inquiry would be when the proceedings were filed, adding however that, given the inquiry’s findings, it should now join the suit.
Theuma was arrested in November 2019 and granted a presidential pardon shortly after. He proved to be the link to Fenech the police needed to charge him with masterminding the assassination.
What do you make Theuma’s request?
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