Fenech claims disallowed witnesses breaches rights

The alleged mastermind behind the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is requesting a court declare the nullity of the proceedings leading to the Bill of Indictment against him, claiming that they were not allowed to summon important witnesses.

Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers say that they had wanted to summon several witnesses as well as evidence of their own, but their requests were brought to naught by the Attorney General’s issuing of the Bill of Indictment, effectively closing the compilation of evidence against Fenech.

Among the witnesses the defence wished to cross-examine before the compilation of evidence closed were former OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma, Theuma’s step-daughter and the assassinated journalist’s son, Matthew Caruana Galizia.

They also wanted to exhibit copies of Fenech’s medical records, phone intercepts between Edwin Brincat (known as il-Ġojja) and both Melvin Theuma and former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, as well as the head of the Malta Security Services to testify.

They also requested Inspector Kurt Zahra exhibit the police notes he referred to in his testimony, in order to see what happened in the investigation.

All of these requests had been refused for various reasons.

The lawyers are saying the Bill of Indictment must be annulled, and the case sent back to the Court of Magistrates to hear all of the evidence.

The list of evidence the defence wanted to hear is understood to list over 100 witnesses in the preliminary pleas.

The court had strongly suggested that the Attorney General consider indicating them in his next note of renvoi, but instead the Attorney General issued the Bill of Indictment.

This constituted unjust treatment, the lawyers are arguing, as the prosecutor had two years to bring all the evidence he wanted and when it was the defence’s turn, the court refused.

Fenech’s defence team asked the court to declare the acts of the compilation of evidence “and consequently the bill of indictment be declared null, as despite repeated requests, disclosure was not given by the police according to law, in breach of decrees of the Court of Magistrates, the Criminal Code and also the defendant’s fundamental right to a fair trial.”

On Monday, MaltaToday reported that Yorgen Fenech’s defence team will be summoning former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff Keith Schembri as witnesses in his murder trial.

READ ALSO: Yorgen Fenech wants Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri to testify in his murder trial