Safehouse evidence presented in 2010 HSBC heist case

The compilation of evidence against the men accused of carrying out a failed hold up at HSBC’s Malta headquarters continued today with evidence linking them to a safehouse allegedly used after the heist being exhibited.

Melvin Theuma, the pardoned middleman in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, exhibited a rental contract for a property of his that he said was used as a safehouse following the 2010 HSBC robbery, as proceedings against  Vince Muscat, il-Koħħu, and Darren Debono, it-Topo continued today.

In a brief sitting before Magistrate Monica Vella, this morning, the former taxi driver and illegal lotto operator handed over a photocopy of the contract for the Mosta property in question.

Defence lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo asked that the document be exhibited in the acts of the case. They declared that they were reserving the right to cross-examine the witness further at a later stage before the Criminal Court, but had no further questions for him at this stage.

In a sitting last month, Theuma had testified to having rented the Mosta apartment to Darren Debono for one month for the sum of €300 in June 2010. After the HSBC heist, which ended up in a shootout with the police, Theuma said he had found Debono on a bed in the flat, bleeding from a gunshot wound inflicted by the police.

Vincent Muscat, Darren Debono and Fabio Psaila had been charged with the 2010 bank robbery that ended in a firefight with police. The failed holdup had been part of a series of high-profile heists carried out during that period, which included a €1 million haul of cash from the HSBC Balzan branch and an undisclosed amount from the Casino di Venezia.

Theuma's testimony in these cases is one of the conditions included in his presidential pardon to tell all on the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder and other cases. Theuma was granted a pardon in 2019 and his testimony was crucial to lead police to the alleged Caruana Galizia murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech.

Fenech has pleaded not guilty and the compilation of evidence against him is ongoing.

Vince Muscat, along with Alfred Degiorgio and George Degiorgio, had been charged with carrying out the Caruana Galizia murder. Earlier this year Muscat pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in jail as part of a plea bargain agreement.

The case against the Degiorgios is ongoing.

READ MORE: Melvin Theuma rented Mosta flat to 2010 HSBC heist gang: 'I found Darren Debono, it-Topo, on the bed with blood on his thigh'