Caruana Galizia assassination: Middleman’s evidence all hearsay, not substantiated says Cardona

The former Labour minister for the economy, Chris Cardona, has denied playing any part in the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In an interview with The Times of Malta, Cardona put up a legalistic defence of claims made by one of the middlemen in the assassination, insisting his claims about what other people had told him, could not be held up in court as circumstantial evidence.

Cardona’s name cropped up during the compilation of evidence against alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech, when Melvin Theuma claimed that Cardona had passed on money through Anthony Chetcuti, to Alfred Degiorgio ‘il-Fulu’ for the assassination.

Cardona, who is still Labour deputy leader for party affairs after resigning from MP earlier this year, said the allegations were “hearsay” and that the allegation had to be backed up by hard evidence.

“Theuma has to be careful… he is a State witness. If he does not say the truth, he could lose his presidential pardon. Theuma is recalling what other people told him. As a fact, what Theuma evidenced in court was not what he saw, but what other people told him. In that case this is not circumstantial evidence, but hearsay,” Cardona said.

Cardona said it was completely false that he had facilitated a payment to the killers through one of his canvassers, Anthony Chetcuti - known as Tony ‘Biglee’. Cardona referred to Biglee, a former Special Assignment Group officer who became his canvasser, as a close friend and fellow Liverpool supporter.

Cardona had accused Keith Schembri, the former prime minister’s chief of staff, of having attempted to frame him by giving the Fenech’s family doctor a note with instructions on what to say. Cardona told The Times he did not believe Schembri could arrive to do that, this time somewhat playing down the gravity of the letter.

Cardona denied having been social with the killers of Caruana Galizia, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio. “I would see them here and there, but meeting socially means, phoning you up, agreeing somewhere to meet, we never had such meetings…”

Cardona described Caruana Galizia as populist agitator with agenda in synch with the Nationalist Party’s. “In the last 15 years she went at a tangent. She did not write only what could not be verified or substantiated, but firing off at will, hurting many people.”

But Cardona said Caruana Galizia was also a “pillar of democracy”.

He said her allegations that he had been inside a German brothel while on official duty had hurt him. Cardona had filed for a garnishee on her bank deposits for damages on a libel suit he filed against her. The case fizzled out when it was evident that neither Cardona or the Caruana Galizia family seemed intent on pursuing the case after the murder.