Yorgen Fenech Gave Degiorgios Over €200,000 In Weekly Payments To Cover Legal Costs And Other Expenses, Court Hears
Yorgen Fenech paid the Degiorgio brothers between €2,000 and €3,000 a week to cover their legal fees and other expenses, state witness Melvin Theuma told the court this morning.
Theuma was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Fenech, who is charged with masterminding the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Theuma has been granted a presidential pardon to reveal all his knowledge about the plot, which he has confessed to having acted as a middleman in.
Today’s sitting centred around three documents that had been obtained from an apartment owned by Theuma. The documents, he told the court, were “receipts” for money passed on from Fenech to the Degiorgios, signed by their lawyer William Cuschieri. He said that he had saved them as proof that he had not kept the money himself.
The three documents related to payments amounting to €70,000, which Theuma said were just a fraction of the money he had passed on to the Degiorgios.
Asked by Superintendent Keith Arnaud for an estimate of how much money Fenech had actually given him, he insisted it was impossible for him to calculate.
“There was definitely between €2,000 and €3,000 a week they were getting from Yorgen. I was giving them another €400 a week. There were those two payments of €30,000 for their legal fees, another €60,000 for their pledge… “ he said. “They would ask for money for everything, court experts, car insurance, school fees. Everything.”
Theuma said that at a point he would also buy meat every week to give to the Degiorgios.
Theuma said that he would meet Mario Degiorgio, the brother of Alfred and George Degriogio, roughly two to three times a week.
Under cross-examination by Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi, Theuma continued to insist that he could not provide an estimate of how much money he had passed on to the brothers.
Azzopardi asked when he started to pass on the €2,000 a week to the brothers, with Theuma replying that this had started in January 2018. He had continued to pass on money every week until he was arrested in November 2019.
Though the court stopped Azzopardi from probing further, given that the question had already been asked a number of times, a quick calculation would put the amount of money handed by Fenech to the brothers between €200,000 and €300,000.
Theuma also said that he had passed another €100,000 to cover court-related expenses, in addition to several other ad-hoc requests.
In separate proceedings linked to the case, Arnaud told the court that Fenech had told the police that he had spent roughly €500,000 on the assassination.
He told the court that Fenech would complain whenever the Degiorgios asked for more money but would ultimately hand it over.
Asked how he would communicate with Fenech and where he was given the money, Theuma said he would make requests via the secure messaging app Signal.
As for where he would receive the money, Theuma said his would either happen at Fenech office in Portomaso or at his ranch in Zebbug. The money would be in €50 denominations or higher, he said.
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