Casa’s testimony confirms no money received from Yorgen Fenech - Delia

Nationalist MEP David Casa’s testimony in the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry confirms that no money was passed by Yorgen Fenech to Adrian Delia, the PN leader has said.

Delia said that Casa’s testimony on Friday “strengthened and confirmed” the categorial denial of the allegations which he had made in an affidavit.

In June, Delia filed an affidavit insisting that he was never approached by the Caruana Galizia murder mastermind to impede the re-election of any of his party’s candidates.

The Nationalist leader had been responding to claims in court by Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in Caruana Galizia’s assassination that he (Delia) had been offered money by Fenech to halt Casa's MEP re-election. Theuma said it was Fenech who had told him about the alleged offer for payment.

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

Testifying in the public inquiry today, Casa said that he had no evidence that Fenech had offered money to PN to curb his re-election. He insisted, however, that he felt the party didn’t want to push him as a candidate. He also noted that, despite being elected, he was removed as head of the PN delegation by Delia.

An investigation by the police's Economic Crimes Unit as well as a magisterial probe into the allegations are ongoing.

In a statement this afternoon, Delia said that Casa had been kept on as delegation head when he was elected leader in 2017, but that he had replaced him with Roberta Metsola after the 2019 MEP elections, since she had obtained more votes.

“…I felt that this was the most just decision which reflects the results of the democratic process…” he said.

He added that the hoped the public inquiry would be allowed to go forward in the best way possible in order for the whole truth about the Caruana Galizia murder to emerge.