State witness Melvin Theuma, the middleman in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, is set to testify this afternoon for the first time since his attempted suicide last July. 

He will testify in the police’s case against suspected hitmen George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat in a sitting scheduled for 2pm.

Theuma was given a conditional pardon last year to reveal all he knows about the murder and other major crimes, a decision taken solely by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. He has implicated businessman Yorgen Fenech as the mastermind, although he said he also suspected that former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri could have been involved too. 

Last July, he was found with multiple stab wounds to his neck and abdomen while alone in his apartment, in what police believe was a suicide attempt.

He was discharged from hospital last August and Times of Malta reported that a police officer has now been stationed inside his home to prevent him from trying to end his life again. 

Theuma’s suicide attempt came a day before he was due to be cross-examined by Yorgen Fenech’s defence team in relation to as yet-unplayed recordings he had taken. The content of these recordings is unknown, but they’re believed to relate to allegations that Theuma could have bribed former police commissioner Laurence Cutajar to secure his pardon. 

Fenech’s lawyers said last October that Theuma negotiate his pardon for €17,000, using as a go-between Edwin ‘Il-Ġojja’ Brincat, a mutual friend of Theuma and Cutajar.

They claim that tapes show that Brincat told Theuma to refer to Fenech as “the mastermind” and by his first name to the police.

Last week, court-appointed psychiatrists cleared the middleman as being mentally fit to continue testifying. 

Meanwhile, Lovin Malta recently revealed that police and Fenech’s lawyers are scrambling to get their hands on new recordings where Theuma details the potential involvement of Schembri in the murder.

Well-informed sources have told Lovin Malta that the recorded conversations are between Julian Hofstra and Melvin Theuma, which took place sometime towards the end of 2018 and the start of 2019.