Feared for His Life<\/strong><\/h2>\nTheuma testified that he became depressed and started drinking heavily after the murder and that his condition deteriorated after the three men he had paid to plant the bomb were arrested late 2017 and charged with murder.<\/p>\n
Theuma became convinced that Fenech would collude with his powerful friend, Schembri, to put him in prison, or worse. So he wrote a letter alleging both Fenech and Schembri were responsible for the killing, which he hoped authorities would find if he were murdered.<\/p>\n
But he told the court Wednesday that he had no first-hand knowledge of Schembri\u2019s involvement and had mentioned him in the letter only because he had assumed the prime minister\u2019s former chief of staff was in on the plot.<\/p>\n
He also claimed he had been visited by a man named \u201cKenneth\u201d from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office who assured him the three suspects arrested for the bomb attack would be granted bail and paid \u20ac1 million each. The three men had been demanding money from Theuma to keep quiet via an intermediary, but “Kenneth’s” promises never materialized, Theuma said.<\/p>\n
Fenech is expected to plead not guilty to promoting, organizing or financing a criminal association with the intention of committing criminal offenses, with being complicit in the voluntary murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and with associating with persons in Malta or abroad with the intention committing a crime.<\/p>\n
Hearings continue on December 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the scandal that brought down Malta\u2019s government. On Wednesday, Melvin Theuma, the so-called \u201cmiddleman\u201d in the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, testified in court that Malta\u2019s biggest casino owner, Yorgen Fenech, was the \u201cmastermind\u201d behind the killing. Fenech is one of Malta\u2019s richest men, with close ties to the Maltese government. Two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":122092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Middleman Testifies Against Yorgen Fenech in Galizia Murder Case<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n