A handwritten confession note by Melvin Theuma, the self-described middleman in journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination, has become a cornerstone of Malta's most significant criminal investigation in decades—directly placing Keith Schembri, former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, at the center of a conspiracy probe that continues to shake the island's political and legal establishment.
Why This Matters:
• Legal precedent: The letter was discovered in November 2019 and led to Schembri's resignation and arrest, though he was released without murder charges.
• Ongoing testimony: As of July 2026, the trial of alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech features continuous testimony revealing Schembri's alleged involvement.
• Political fallout: Schembri faces multiple separate criminal charges including perjury, Official Secrets Act violations, money laundering, corruption, fraud, and forgery.
The Discovery That Changed Everything
When Maltese police raided the Portomaso properties of business magnate Yorgen Fenech in November 2019, they uncovered far more than financial records. Among the evidence sat a handwritten letter by Theuma, a taxi driver who had confessed to orchestrating the logistics of the October 2017 car bombing that killed Caruana Galizia near her Bidnija home. In that letter, Theuma explicitly named both Fenech and Schembri—referred to by his nickname "il-Kasco"—as the individuals who hired him and financed the bomb.
Theuma wrote the note out of fear. He believed Fenech and Schembri were "working to get rid of me as well," and wanted the truth preserved in case he was eliminated. The letter referenced secret recordings and included mention of a photograph showing Theuma with Schembri at Castille, the prime ministerial office in Valletta. That photograph was allegedly taken after Schembri arranged a phantom government job for Theuma in 2017—a position that paid monthly checks without requiring any actual work, coinciding precisely with the period when the murder plot was allegedly forming.
The Journalist and the Car Bomb
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's most prominent investigative journalist when a remotely detonated car bomb killed her on October 16, 2017. Her reporting had exposed government corruption, nepotism, money laundering networks, and questionable practices within Malta's citizenship-by-investment program. Her Panama Papers investigations directly implicated Schembri and then-Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi in offshore financial schemes, making her a persistent threat to Malta's political elite.
Three men—George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat—were arrested in December 2017 for carrying out the bombing. The Degiorgio brothers pleaded guilty in October 2022 and received 40-year prison sentences. In June 2025, Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were convicted of supplying the bomb and sentenced to life imprisonment. But the question of who ordered the assassination remained the investigation's central mystery until Theuma's confession and subsequent letter implicated the island's highest political circles.
What the Letter Actually Says—and What It Doesn't
While the letter placed Schembri squarely in investigators' crosshairs, Theuma later walked back some of its implications. When questioned by police while seeking a presidential pardon, Theuma clarified he had no first-hand knowledge of Schembri directly ordering the murder. He admitted mentioning Schembri in the letter partly to "scare" Fenech and partly because he assumed Schembri was involved or at least aware of the plot.
Fenech, now standing trial for allegedly masterminding the assassination, has since made more explicit accusations. He claims Schembri desired Caruana Galizia's death and actively helped him attempt to secure a presidential pardon by creating a fabricated narrative pinning the murder on then-Justice Minister Chris Cardona. Police investigators reportedly believed Schembri knew specific details of the plot months before arrests were made, though this has never resulted in murder charges against him.
The Phantom Job and November 2019 Acquittal
The arrangement that brought Theuma into government employ became its own criminal case. In November 2025, a Maltese Magistrates' Court acquitted Schembri, Fenech, and three others of theft and misappropriation charges related to giving Theuma the no-show government position in 2017. Prosecutors have announced their intention to appeal the acquittal, arguing the job was designed to keep Theuma silent and complicit.
Theuma has stated this phantom job was his only direct contact with Schembri, contradicting some of Fenech's claims about more extensive meetings and coordination. The acquittal does not affect Schembri's standing in other cases, nor does it diminish the evidentiary weight of Theuma's letter in the Fenech murder trial.
What This Means for Malta's Legal and Political Landscape
As testimony continues in Fenech's trial throughout July 2026, Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud and other investigators have detailed how the letter became the linchpin connecting political power to organized violence. The document's discovery precipitated Schembri's November 2019 resignation and arrest, which in turn contributed to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's own resignation weeks later, ending a political era defined by economic growth shadowed by mounting corruption allegations.
Schembri now faces a web of separate criminal proceedings. In March 2021, he was charged with corruption, fraud, and money laundering related to the Vitals Global Healthcare hospital contract scandal, with additional charges filed in May 2024. In November 2024, he was charged with perjury and breaches of the Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking sensitive information to individuals involved in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.
The Trials Continue
None of these charges have yet resulted in convictions, and Schembri continues to deny any involvement in Caruana Galizia's murder or advance knowledge of the plot. The legal proceedings surrounding Malta's most high-profile assassination are expected to stretch into 2027, with Fenech's trial serving as the primary venue for testimony that repeatedly circles back to Schembri's alleged role.
For Malta residents, the case has become a protracted stress test of the island's judicial independence and political accountability. The letter written by a frightened taxi driver in 2019 remains one of the most consequential pieces of evidence in modern Maltese legal history—an artifact that continues to reshape the country's political class and test the boundaries between power, silence, and justice.
