No Call To Minister Cardona After Daphne Caruana Galizia Complaint, New Report States

A phone conversation alleged to have happened between Minister Chris Cardona and Pierre Darmanin never took place according to reports published by The Malta Independent.

Darmanin, who is the owner of a ship impounded by customs on suspicion of fuel-smuggling five years ago, was said to have made the call shortly after speaking to Daphne Caruana Galizia back in October 2016.

While local and foreign sources investigating the issue said Cardona was not contacted around that time, they did confirm that Alfred and George Degiorgio (two of the men accused of killing Caruana Galizia) were called by Darmanin shortly after his conversation with Daphne.

The claims were originally made by La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper partnered with The Daphne Project.

Earlier this week, the Daphne Project revealed that Darmanin had been in contact with Caruana Galizia after she mentioned him and his then-impounded ship, the MV Silverking, in an article about a diesel-smuggling ring.

The Malta Independent has said that while it cannot be excluded that Economy Minister Chris Cardona had contacted Darmanin at an earlier or later stage, there was no phone communication between the two following the latter’s seven-minute call with Caruana Galizia.

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