Alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech will get a second attempt at removing Superintendent Keith Arnaud from the Daphne Caruana Galizia case, following an appeals court decision on Wednesday.
Last March, Yorgen Fenech's request for the removal of Keith Arnaud from the investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia ended in failure.
Fenech is awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in the murder of Caruana Galizia.
The alleged mastermind is claiming that Arnaud had a conflict of interest due to his relationship with Keith Schembri, the former Prime Minister's chief of staff, and a former acquaintance of Fenech.
Schembri had allegedly told Fenech that Arnaud had sought his assistance in getting his wife employed. Arnaud’s wife was subsequently employed by Infrastructure Malta in January 2019, Fenech had said.
Fenech is also claiming that Arnaud had provided information about the murder investigation to Schembri, including details about the arrest of three suspects.
He also claimed that the superintendent had warned him to be careful when implicating others in the murder and had subsequently confirmed that he was referring to Schembri.
The court has declined to exercise its jurisdiction on the grounds that Fenech had not first exhausted his ordinary remedies.
However, on Wednesday, a second court held a different perspective on this matter. It noted that Fenech's request was aimed at having the court evaluate Arnaud's impartiality, rather than instigating legal action against Schembri. In this context, his case was unrelated to contesting the actions of the police commissioner, as per their verdict.
“Whether Fenech was right or wrong was another matter,” the court said.
The court, presided over by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti and Justices Giannino Caruana Demajo and Anthony Ellul, sent the case back to the first court to decide upon the other issues in the case.
Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Charles Mercieca and Marion Camilleri assisted Fenech.
