Keith Schembri’s involvement in a murder investigation of a journalist whose murder he celebrated

In last week’s trial proceedings, former OPM security official Kenneth Camilleri testified and rekindled memories of the events that implicated the former prime minister’s chief of staff in meddling with the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Keith Schembri was in contact with Yorgen Fenech, promising to help him until the moment of his arrest.

Keith Schembri had his trusted lieutenant, Silvio Valletta, do the dirty work for him to protect Yorgen Fenech from investigation, especially in relation to 17 Black.

Throughout, Keith Schembri never commented on his actions regarding his involvement in the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. However, when he testified before the Public Accounts Committee, just like Joseph Muscat, he said that he had provided all the resources requested by the police and had called for an investigation. This has always been Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri’s defence as to why they were not, and could never have been, involved in her murder.

Keith Schembri recreated a mock funeral for Daphne Caruana Galizia at Castille just right after she was murdered. He then went on to meddle in the investigation, not only by protecting Yorgen Fenech but also by being in indirect communication with Melvin Theuma and the convicted hitmen who killed her. We know this from the testimony of Kenneth Camilleri, who told the court that, in the summer of 2018, Keith Schembri telephoned him one evening and instructed him to contact Johann Cremona so that the two could go and “calm someone”.

Kenneth Camilleri said he was not told the person’s identity or the reason, viewing the request as the sort of task sometimes given “for the party”. Cremona collected him, and they drove to Melvin Theuma’s home in Żurrieq, where an agitated Theuma pressed them about securing bail for the Degiorgio brothers and referred to a “bag”, which Camilleri understood to mean a bag of cash, while urging them to “get rid of them”. Kenneth Camilleri said he was shocked by the encounter and tried the next day to raise the matter with Keith Schembri at work, but Schembri appeared to avoid him.

Kenneth Camilleri later sought to confront Keith Schembri, passing messages through Neville Gafa, and eventually arranged a meeting with Joseph Muscat after contacting communications chief, Kurt Farrugia. According to Kenneth Camilleri, when he entered Joseph Muscat’s office, Muscat told him, “The less I know, the better,” before the meeting effectively ended.

Kenneth Camilleri admitted that parts of his earlier statement to investigators had been untrue because he “didn’t trust anyone” at the time. He described his growing fear for his life, suspecting that Keith Schembri was involved, and described an incident following his public inquiry testimony in which an unknown man approached him in Valletta and asked whether he had “exposed Keith”. He denied ever speaking to Yorgen Fenech and rejected any suggestion that Schembri had sent him to kill Theuma.