Day 16 Of Yorgen Fenech’s Trial: ‘Il-Ġojja’ Takes The Stand, Detailing Theuma’s Confession And The Secret Recordings

The Yorgen Fenech murder trial entered its 16th day with testimony from Edgar Brincat, known as “il-Ġojja,” a close friend of murder middleman Melvin Theuma who was arrested alongside him in November 2019.

Who is Il-Ġojja?

Brincat described himself to the court as a car dealer who also ran a restaurant in Birżebbuġa and worked as a bookmaker.

He told jurors he had a “very good relationship” with Theuma. The two regularly visited each other’s homes, went out to eat together and attended family barbecues.

His name has featured previously during the trial after the court heard his phone contained a contact for former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar saved as “M.R.C.”, referring to the Marsa Racing Club.

Theuma’s confession

Brincat testified that Theuma confided in him directly that he had acted as the middleman between Yorgen Fenech and the Degiorgio brothers in Caruana Galizia’s murder.

According to Brincat, Theuma told him he had passed money from Fenech to the Degiorgio brothers, although he was never told exactly when or how those payments were made.

Brincat also testified that Theuma told him Fenech had given him €150,000 to pass on to the Degiorgio brothers, in addition to other smaller sums. He said Theuma told him he was regularly handing over money to someone connected to the brothers.

Brincat also said Theuma confided that Fenech had warned him Vince Muscat, “il-Koħħu,” was talking to the police, something Theuma took as a sign he could be exposed at any moment. “He was scared that Koħħu would expose him,” Brincat testified.

“Keith would walk through fire for me”

The relationship between Fenech and Schembri, and how much weight Theuma put on it, became one of the sitting’s central threads. Prosecutor Godwin Cini read out an earlier statement Brincat had given, in which he described how fixated Theuma had become on the idea that Schembri was involved: “He had gotten it completely into his head about Yorgen and Keith Schembri. However, when I asked him, Keith Schembri had never actually spoken to him. He only thought Keith was involved because Yorgen would mention him constantly whenever he spoke to Melvin. It was Keith this, and Keith that. ‘Keith would walk through fire for me.'”

Pressed on what he made of the Fenech-Schembri friendship and what it might mean for Theuma’s chances of a pardon, Brincat was dismissive of any real insight into it: “It didn’t mean anything to me that Keith and Yorgen were friends.” His only involvement, he said, was warning Theuma against going to Castille in the first place, telling him the bomb case would end up being “pinned entirely onto him” if he did. Asked whether Theuma had ever used a specific phrase to describe the Fenech-Schembri bond, Brincat said he couldn’t recall, prompting a brief objection from the defence bench over the prosecution’s phrasing. “After seven years, I forget things,” Brincat said. “Even if you ask me next week what I said here today, I wouldn’t entirely remember.”

On the phantom job itself, Brincat said Theuma told him simply that “they” had stopped his payments, without ever explaining why, and that it was Fenech who’d sent him to Castille to begin with. He said Theuma became convinced Schembri was involved in the murder to the point of wanting to contact him directly through Fenech, something Brincat pushed back on hard at the time: “How can you go and ask a man for money over a murder when he doesn’t even know what happened?” Asked what Fenech had actually told Theuma about Schembri’s role, Brincat said he didn’t know, adding he assumed it was “regarding the case.” Brincat explained that Theuma’s suspicion stemmed largely from the fact that Fenech kept bringing up Schembri’s name, even though Theuma and Schembri’s own dealings with each other never went beyond the phantom job. He described Theuma as not being in a stable state of mind around this time, recalling that he’d even floated the idea of approaching the Archbishop to ask for money.

“They are powerful people”

The prosecution pressed Brincat on Theuma’s odds of securing a pardon, given that Fenech and Schembri were friends, and that Fenech was allegedly passing Theuma information about the investigation as it unfolded. Brincat said he had no real insight into that side of things: “I don’t know about this sort of thing.” Judge Grima then put a more pointed question to him directly, asking whether he thought Fenech and Schembri would try to pin the murder on Theuma given who was involved. Brincat’s answer was blunt: “Yes, they are powerful people. You never know what contacts people have.”

The recordings and the pardon race

Brincat said he could barely believe it when Theuma told him he had tapes proving everything. He asked Theuma whether Fenech knew about the recordings, and even suggested Theuma should tell him and use them as leverage to get Fenech’s help. According to Brincat, only Theuma himself knew Fenech was involved at that stage. Theuma later played him a couple of the recordings from USB sticks. Brincat said he couldn’t really make out what was being said, but that didn’t matter to him. The mere existence of the tapes was enough. He figured the police would be able to make sense of them.

He also testified that Theuma was set on seeking a presidential pardon, believing that whoever spoke to police first would get one, and he wanted to be first. Brincat said he actually advised Theuma against it, warning that police might simply refuse.

The Cutajar connection

Much of the sitting also focused on Brincat’s own relationship with Lawrence Cutajar, which he said began after his Birżebbuġa restaurant was robbed and Cutajar was one of the investigating officers. Jurors were shown WhatsApp exchanges between the two, including one where Cutajar promised to look into a traffic contravention issued to one of Brincat’s employees, and another where Cutajar told him a court hearing had been deferred to February 18. Brincat testified that Cutajar had separately asked him about Theuma’s tapes and asked him to get hold of one, promising Brincat wouldn’t be exposed if he did. But Brincat pushed back on the idea he’d shared anything with Cutajar. “I used to tell Melvin not to go to the police,” he said. “Why would I tell Lawrence Cutajar about these recordings?”

He denied ever warning Theuma about his impending arrest, saying Cutajar never tipped him off, and said he couldn’t recall what a text exchange reading “5pm OK” between the two of them had actually referred to. He did, however, say he’d warned Theuma that “someone” was aware the tapes existed, and told him to be careful with them.

Jurors were also shown a piece of evidence the press was ordered not to report until the end of the day’s hearing, a reminder of just how tightly controlled some elements of this trial remain even as the fuller picture around Theuma, Cutajar, and Fenech continues to take shape.

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Clara Sciberras

Clara is a lawyer, actor, singer and journalist passionate about storytelling. She joined TV programme Xarabank in 2019 as a producer, beginning her journey in local media.