Malta trial: Businessman awaiting Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder 'prepared champagne'

The businessman accused of paying for hitmen to murder the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was impatient for the killing to take place, and once texted from his boat to say he was “preparing champagne” to celebrate, a jury in Malta has heard.

Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes several Hilton hotels, is on trial in Malta for complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia. She died in a car bombing in October 2017 after publishing a series of revelations about senior politicians that were so damaging they triggered a snap general election.

The key witness in the case, a taxi driver who says he acted as middleman between Fenech and three men already convicted of accepting €150,000 (£128,000) to carry out the killing, took the stand on Friday to begin his testimony.

Melvin Theuma, who has been living under witness protection since agreeing to testify in return for a pardon, said Fenech had told him to contact a known criminal and set up the killing because he wanted to protect his uncle Raymond Fenech, the head of the family business.

“Bring him here, I need him to kill Daphne because she’s going to publish information about Uncle Ray,” Theuma claimed Fenech had told him.

Theuma has previously testified that over time the explanation changed, and the hit was designed to stop revelations about Yorgen himself.

The conversation took place in April 2017. The two men were friends, having known each other for years, although Theuma told the jury it was not an equal relationship.

“He’s a lion and I’m a mosquito,” Theuma said of the accused.

The taxi driver, who had cultivated a friendship with Fenech over a shared interest in horseracing and betting, is regarded by the prosecution as key to securing a conviction. He has given police multiple recordings of conversations he had with Fenech after the murder.

Before taking the stand, Theuma had to be certified as fit to give evidence, having previously tried to take his own life. In 2020, having already secured a pardon, he swallowed acid and slit his own throat. He will be allowed to give evidence seated, with his back to Fenech and his lawyers, having previously complained of intimidation.

He began his testimony by apologising to the victim’s family, saying: “My cross was too much to bear; I can’t imagine what theirs was like.”

After receiving the order from Fenech, Theuma said he went to the docks in Marsa, where the hitmen, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and their associate Vincent Muscat, used a warehouse known as the potato shed as a base.

“Alfred got into my taxi and I told him ‘I have someone who wants to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia’.

“He asked if the person could pay, and I said yes, of course.”

Theuma said he never told the hitmen who had sent him. He told the court Fenech had agreed to the price, but then asked him to call off the attack after Malta’s then prime minister, Joseph Muscat, called a snap general election. Instead, he asked Theuma to place a €150,000 bet for him on Muscat securing a second term.

When Muscat was returned to power with a landslide victory in June 2017, Theuma said Fenech rang him that night. “He sounded tipsy. He told me to go ahead with the Daphne job. I didn’t do anything, he sounded drunk.”

A few days later, he gave Fenech his winnings from the bet – €300,000, minus a commission. Nothing more was said about Caruana Galizia. But a few days later, Fenech summoned him and gave him an envelope stuffed with cash. “I asked him, ‘What’s this?’ He said: ‘It’s the €150,000 to have Daphne killed.’”

The hitmen were given a €30,000 deposit and began scoping the journalist’s movements. Theuma was given a burner phone to contact them with. The witness said he took the phone with him to Disneyland for a family holiday, and that Fenech wanted reassurance he had not left Malta without it. The businessman became impatient as time passed.

“Yorgen would ask me every few days: ‘When will they kill her?’ Once, he was on his boat and texted me to say he was preparing champagne in case it happened.”

Theuma said Fenech helped to plot Caruana Galizia’s routine, identifying a cafe and restaurant that she frequented.

The witness broke down as he described the moment he learned of the death from the television news. Wiping his eyes, he said: “I was living a normal life, I didn’t want for anything. Then I turned on the TV and saw that Daphne was dead. My life ended. When she was killed, my life was blown up.”

He also revealed he had been in regular contact by text message with Caruana Galizia’s sons, Matthew and Paul. He said: “I was involved in their mother’s murder, and they speak to me. They tell me I will feel better after the trial. But I know I won’t. The remorse is too great.”

Fenech, who is on trial for complicity in the voluntary homicide of Caruana Galizia, denies the charges. The trial continues.