A ‘panicked’ former Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri called up Johann Cremona for a meeting to discuss how he would be able to contact Yorgen Fenech, two months before the businessman’s arrest in connection with the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Under questioning from lawyer Jason Azzopardi, Cremona revealed that he received a sudden phone call sometime in September 2019 from Schembri asking to meet up. Cremona is a business partner of main suspect Yorgen Fenech and a confidante of state witness Melvin Theuma.

“He first spoke about the gaming industry, but the questions soon turned to how he could contact Fenech. He was panicked but I didn’t know how, all I knew was that Fenech was abroad,” Cremona said.

“Tell him I need to speak to him,” Schembri told Cremona.

During today’s sitting, Cremona also said that Theuma repeatedly said that Schembri and Fenech were behind the murder. However, he stressed that these were Theuma’s words not his.

Schembri is set to face cross-examination in the police’s case against Fenech on Monday 22nd June.

Fenech claims in recordings that he was fed information on the investigation directly from Schembri and former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta.

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

Adrian Vella, the doctor of both Fenech and Schembri said he acted as go-between while the former was under police bail. He allegedly passed Fenech a letter with instructions to pin the murder on Cardona.

Fenech has described a “fraternal” relationship with Schembri to the courts. Schembri has even confirmed under oath that they were friends and had also holidayed together on occasion.

In a previous sitting, Chief Homicide Inspector Keith Arnaud said Schembri was under investigation over a litany of offences which include:

Tampering with evidence, leaking extensive information about the investigation, obstructing justice, and acquiring a phantom job for middleman Melvin Theuma.

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