‘5pm Tomorrow?’: Ex-Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar’s Chats With Melvin Theuma’s ‘Father Figure’ Shown To Jury

On Day 14 of Yorgen Fenech’s trial into the murder of Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar’s communications with Melvin Theuma’s close associate, Edgar Brincat, known as Il-Ġojja, came under the spotlight during the cross-examination of Superintendent Nicholas Vella, with the court hearing how investigators uncovered messages between the two while examining Brincat’s mobile phone during the Melvin Theuma investigation.

Vella testified that the messages appeared to arrange meetings between Cutajar and Brincat, who was a close associate of Melvin Theuma and described Assistant Police Commissioner and Chief Investigator Keith Arnaud as being like a “father figure” to the murder middleman.

After identifying the phone number linked to the chats, investigators established it belonged to Cutajar and informed the inquiring magistrate before asking the former police commissioner to explain the communications.

Vella, who formed part of the money laundering investigation that led to Theuma’s arrest in November 2019, told jurors that his role was to build a financial profile of Theuma by gathering intelligence from the Commissioner for Revenue and local banks. After around two months of investigations, police had gathered enough evidence to obtain arrest warrants and plan the operation. Theuma was later arrested in November 2019.

According to Vella, Cutajar explained that he knew Theuma possessed secret recordings and wanted Brincat to convince him to hand them over to investigators.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Dr Giannella De Marco read several of the messages exchanged between Brincat and Cutajar, including conversations arranging phone calls and meetings.

Among the messages read out were brief exchanges arranging contact, including Brincat writing, “I’ll call you in five minutes,” followed by “OK,” and a further exchange in which one side wrote, “5pm?” and received the reply, “OK.” Other messages showed Brincat writing, “Before I call you, let me see if I can speak,” and later asking, “I can’t do 5pm today. Can you do 5pm tomorrow?” to which Cutajar replied, “Yes, that’s fine.”

In another exchange, Brincat wrote, “Tomorrow is better,” while in a separate message he said, “If you want, I can even do today, because I have to leave for a meeting at 5.” After the messages were read out in court, Vella remarked that the chats “ring a bell.”

De Marco also asked whether anyone within the police force had instructed Cutajar not to meet Brincat after the messages were uncovered.

Vella rejected the suggestion, telling the court that investigators questioned Cutajar about the chats but never instructed him not to communicate with Brincat.

The defence then referred to media reports about the investigation, asking whether there had been leaks to the press.

“There were leaks,” Vella acknowledged.

De Marco proceeded to read extracts from a Times of Malta report claiming that Cutajar had been told not to meet Brincat after investigators discovered the messages, but nevertheless met him again shortly before the investigation team moved to arrest Theuma.

Earlier in his testimony, Vella also told the jury that while former Assistant Commissioners Keith Arnaud and Ian Abdilla, together with Cutajar, were regularly kept informed about the progress of the investigation, neither Cutajar nor Abdilla were notified immediately before police brought forward Theuma’s arrest.

In earlier testimony during Yorgen Fenech’s trial, Arnaud had also spoken about the contact between Cutajar and Brincat, telling the court that investigators became aware of communications between the two while examining Brincat’s phone. He said Cutajar later explained that he had sought a meeting with Brincat to find out whether he had any information about Melvin Theuma’s secret recordings, which were considered a crucial part of the murder investigation.

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Clara Sciberras

Clara is a lawyer, actor, singer and journalist passionate about storytelling. She joined prime-time TV programme Xarabank in 2019 as a producer, beginning her journey in local media. With a focus on social justice, law and politics, she tries to bring curiosity, creativity and a touch of humour to the stories she tells.