Keith Schembri arrested by police in connection with Theuma no-show job

The former Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, has been arrested by the police, ostenibly to be questioned over a no-show job with a State agency granted to the middleman in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Last week, Keith Schembri resigned from his post after alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech implicated him in the Caruana Galizia assassination.

Just 24 hours before announcing his resignation, Schembri was at Muscat’s private residence in Burmarrad for a night-time meeting.

Schembri disappeared from public view ever since his arrest and subsequent release from questioning.

Despite Schembri’s absence from the public eye, the OPM’s unofficial envoy to Libya, Neville Gafà, has maintained a steady contact with the former chief of staff.

In court, Schembri was accused by alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech of having made “considerable efforts” to stop him from passing incriminating information to the police, including interventions by third persons and through promises.

Fenech also claimed in court that he has recordings and a contract implicating Keith Schembri in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation.

A photo of middleman Melvin Theuma and Keith Schembri at his office in Castille was also published by MaltaToday.

Alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech also sought to remove Inspector Keith Arnaud from the investigation by filing a prohibitory injunction.

Fenech claimed that Arnaud had been continuously informing the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri on the progress in the investigation into Caruana Galizia’s murder.                                                                 

He also alleged in the letter that, following his arrest on 20 November, Arnaud had advised him to “be responsible” when it came to what he told the police.

The police, however, subsequently said in a statement that Arnaud would remain part of the investigation, since there was "no basis" for his removal, and that the results achieved to date in the investigation were testament to this.

Despite Fenech’s claims, PM Joseph Muscat said that Keith Schembri’s name never cropped up in any of the briefings he was given by investigators probing the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder.

In comments to Times of Malta on Thursday, Muscat refused to say if he was still in touch with his former chief of staff.

Rabat mayor Sandro Cruas and former Housing Maintenance and Embellishment Co., Tony Muscat were also being held for police questioning over their involvement in finding a phantom job for middleman Melvin Theuma.

Craus was mentioned by Theuma in a court testimony earlier this week, stating that businessman Yorgen Fenech, who is one of the suspected masterminds behind the Caruana Galizia murder, had told him that he would receive a phone call from Craus.

Theuma told the court that the Rabat mayor had asked him to go to Castille, where he met former chief of staff Keith Schembri.

READ ALSO: Keith Schembri resigns, taken in for questioning at police headquarters