Police investigating claims concerning Yorgen Fenech payments to Adrian Delia

The police have started an investigation into claims Adrian Delia received money from suspected Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech to curb David Casa's European election bid.

A spokesperson for the police confirmed that the Economic Crimes Unit had started investigating the claims.

The police investigation is taking place in parallel with the magisterial inquiry into the alleged payments, which kicked off earlier this week.

Sources close to the investigation told MaltaToday that the inquiring magistrate is tomorrow expected to hear the testimonies of Labour TV presenter Karl Stagno Navarra and PN MP David Thake.

It is understood that former head of PN media Pierre Portelli, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, as well as Delia could yet be called in for questioning.

The claims that the Nationalist Party had been offered money to prevent Casa's re-election had first been made by Thake on Xarabank in June 2019.

This month, Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in Caruana Galizia’s assassination, said in sworn court testimony that Delia had been offered money by Fenech to halt Casa's re-election. Theuma said it was Fenech who had told him about the alleged offer for payment.

This week, Schembri, who was also testifying in the compilation of evidence, said that Fenech had told him that Delia had asked him (Fenech) for €50,000 in exchange for obstructing Casa's re-election attempt.

Schembri also said that Portelli would regularly collect €20,000 payments from Fenech.

Last week, Stagno Navarra alleged on his Pjazza programme on ONE TV that Fenech had offered Delia €250,000 to stop Casa's re-election.