A jury in Malta has heard that the businessman accused of paying for the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was impatient for the killing to take place, once texting from his boat to say he was “preparing champagne” to celebrate.
Key witness takes the stand
Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire including several Hilton hotels, is on trial for complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia, who died in a car bombing in October 2017 after publishing revelations about senior politicians that triggered a snap general election.
The key witness, a taxi driver who says he acted as middleman between Fenech and three men already convicted of accepting €150,000 (£128,000) to carry out the killing, began his testimony on Friday.
Melvin Theuma, living under witness protection since agreeing to testify in return for a pardon, said Fenech told him to contact a known criminal and set up the killing because he wanted to protect his uncle Raymond Fenech, head of the family business.
Testimony details
“Bring him here, I need him to kill Daphne because she’s going to publish information about Uncle Ray,” Theuma claimed Fenech told him. Theuma has previously testified that the explanation later changed to stopping revelations about Yorgen himself.
The conversation took place in April 2017. The two men were friends, but Theuma told the jury it was not an equal relationship. “He’s a lion and I’m a mosquito,” he said.
Theuma, who had cultivated a friendship with Fenech over horseracing and betting, is regarded by the prosecution as key to securing a conviction. He has given police multiple recordings of conversations with Fenech after the murder.
Before taking the stand, Theuma had to be certified fit to give evidence, having previously tried to take his own life. In 2020, after securing a pardon, he swallowed acid and slit his throat. He is allowed to give evidence seated, with his back to Fenech and his lawyers, having complained of intimidation.
Alleged plot unfolds
He began by apologising to the victim’s family: “My cross was too much to bear; I can’t imagine what theirs was like.”
After receiving the order, Theuma went to the docks in Marsa, where the hitmen, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat, used a warehouse known as the potato shed as a base. “Alfred got into my taxi and I told him ‘I have someone who wants to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia’. He asked if the person could pay, and I said yes, of course.”
Theuma said he never told the hitmen who had sent him. Fenech agreed to the price, but then asked him to call off the attack after then prime minister Joseph Muscat called a snap general election, instead asking Theuma to place a €150,000 bet on Muscat securing a second term.
When Muscat won a landslide in June 2017, Fenech rang that night. “He sounded tipsy. He told me to go ahead with the Daphne job. I didn’t do anything, he sounded drunk.”
A few days later, Theuma gave Fenech his winnings – €300,000, minus commission. Nothing more was said about Caruana Galizia. But days later, Fenech summoned him and gave him an envelope stuffed with cash. “I asked him, ‘What’s this?’ He said: ‘It’s the €150,000 to have Daphne killed.’”
Impatience and aftermath
The hitmen were given a €30,000 deposit and began scoping the journalist’s movements. Theuma was given a burner phone to contact them, which he took to Disneyland on a family holiday. Fenech wanted reassurance he had not left Malta without it. The businessman became impatient as time passed.
“Yorgen would ask me every few days: ‘When will they kill her?’ Once, he was on his boat and texted me to say he was preparing champagne in case it happened.”
Theuma said Fenech helped plot Caruana Galizia’s routine, identifying a cafe and restaurant she frequented.
The witness broke down describing the moment he learned of the death from television news. Wiping his eyes, he said: “I was living a normal life, I didn’t want for anything. Then I turned on the TV and saw that Daphne was dead. My life ended. When she was killed, my life was blown up.”
He also revealed regular text contact with Caruana Galizia’s sons, Matthew and Paul. “I was involved in their mother’s murder, and they speak to me. They tell me I will feel better after the trial. But I know I won’t. The remorse is too great.”
Fenech, on trial for complicity in the voluntary homicide of Caruana Galizia, denies the charges. The trial continues.
