[WATCH] Chris Cardona gives no comments on police questioning

Chris Cardona has avoided answering questions from the press two days after he was called in for questioning by the police in relation to the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

As he was walking into Castille this morning for a parliamentary group meeting, Cardona faced a barrage of questions from journalists about his being questioned the police on Saturday in connection with the journalist’s murder.

A member of his secretariat was questioned on Sunday, under caution. 

Cardona’s questioning did not take place under caution, with the Economy Minister having told MaltaToday after speaking to the police that he had denied any involvement in the Caruana Galizia murder.

Cardona said the police had asked him four questions, including whether he knew Melvin Theuma, the middleman in the Caruana Galizia murder. “I answered no,” he said.

“I was asked whether I had any involvement in the murder, and I answered no. I was also asked whether I had passed on money, and again my answer was no,” Cardona said.

The minister said that he was also asked why he had dropped libel proceedings against Daphne Caruana Galizia. “I told them that I did not drop libel proceedings.”

The reference is to libel proceedings Cardona had started against Caruana Galizia on the brothel allegations in January 2017. Cardona’s libel case against the late Daphne Caruana Galizia was struck off by a court last year, and afterwards, his aide ceded his own libel case.

The fact that both cases did not continue means that the opportunity to verify whether the minister and his aide had been inside a German brothel while on official business was lost. A cache of mobile data held under the custody of the magistrate would have revealed the location of Cardona and his aide.

Caruana Galizia had claimed back in January 2017, that the pair had visited a brothel in Germany and the information was based on an anonymous eyewitness source.