State witness Melvin Theuma’s presidential pardon will be submitted in the police’s case against Yorgen Fenech over the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello issued a decree on the issue earlier today after Fenech’s legal team and the prosecution team traded barbs over the issue in last Thursday’s sitting.

Fenech’s team made a request for the pardon to be presented last Thursday.

However,  Homicide Inspector Keith Arnaud revealed he had not brought a copy of the pardon to the sitting with Deputy Attorney General Philip Galea Farrugia explaining he told the prosecution not to do so as it could prove to be prejudicial to the case.

Theuma was granted the pardon in exchange for true testimony in the case by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who went on the advice of the Attorney General Peter Grech and then-Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar without consulting the cabinet.

The pardon will now be exhibited in court by Malta’s new Police Commissioner on the guarantee that any other crimes revealed in the pardon but not related to the case were not mentioned.

The next sitting is on Wednesday at 9.30am and Lovin Malta will cover the sitting live. A voice recording taken by Theuma which the prosecution doesn’t have will also be played to the court.

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