Earlier I wrote about Inspector Keith Arnaud’s final line of questioning yesterday while he had Keith Schembri as a witness in the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech. This was a line of questions which I said I felt were more intended to be heard for themselves rather than in expectation of any revelation in Keith Schembri’s answers.
But let’s rewind to the beginning of yesterday’s session. Before Keith Schembri took the stand Magistrate Rachel Montebello asked if the police considered Keith Schembri a murder suspect.
Clearly, for whatever reason, the police are not ready to charge Keith Schembri with murder. And they haven’t charged him with a lot of other things we could be speaking about: bribery, money laundering, perjury and whatnot.
But here we are. The last time the police made a formal statement about Keith Schembri was after his release from arrest. Lawrence Cutajar was still police chief then. And Joseph Muscat was still prime minister. The police said that 29 November 2019 they had no reason to hold on to Keith Schembri any longer.
But Inspector Keith Arnaud did not want to leave anyone with the impression yesterday that Keith Schembri was clear of suspicion. So he used the term ‘person of interest’ to warn the court the police are far from ruling out charging Keith Schembri at some future date.
The magistrate proceeded to warn Keith Schembri before he testified that anything he said could be used against him and that he didn’t need to answer anything he felt could incriminate him. Keith Schembri had promised the country to speak out, so he did. In his own fashion.
Inspector Keith Arnaud has a very clear understanding of what it means to speak in a way that would incriminate oneself. He therefore can’t have been expecting an answer when he confronted Keith Schembri with something Yorgen Fenech had told them about him.
Yorgen Fenech told the police Keith Schembri put together between €75,000 and €80,000 in cash in a duffle bag and handed them over to Yorgen Fenech as his share for the cost of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia.
This murder was a joint venture and Keith Schembri was a partner. Remember Melvyn Theuma says Yorgen Fenech gave him €150,000 to pay the Degiorgios to kill Daphne. So we’re in the pall-park 50:50 here.
Now answering that question is definitely self-incriminating and the magistrate stopped the question before it could be answered.
But the sound of that question hangs over Keith Schembri’s neck now. Inspector Keith Arnaud’s question was not idle curiosity. Nor was it being asked by someone with some particular motivation to make Keith Schembri look bad. Keith Schembri can accuse Keith Arnaud of acting in partnership with the hated Nationalists as much as Adrian Delia can accuse Melvyn Theuma of working for Labour.
Not idly was the question asked.
So, let’s be clear from now on. When we speak about Keith Schembri we no longer speak of the former chief of staff of the prime minister; owner of a Panama company; recipient of bribes from 17 Black; mastermind of the Labour Party’s victories; prince of darkness and power behind the throne.
We are speaking of a man the police think may have paid money and ordered the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Take a moment to take that in.