Dr Adrian Vella testifies in day 32 of Yorgen Fenech trial
The trial by jury of businessman Yorgen Fenech has entered its 32nd day, with more witnesses expected to continue testifying before Madam Justice Edwina Grima.
Wednesday’s sitting saw jurors shown more messages extracted from Fenech’s mobile phone, with the jury told of the existence of group chats featuring several Maltese high-profile figures.
These chats included a group named ‘No Valletta, No Party’ – which included former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, former MFSA chief executive Joseph Cuschieri and Kenneth Azzopardi – and another named ‘Sassicaia’ – which included Fenech, Schembri, and then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
The court also heard that the self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma is fit to testify in proceedings..
More witnesses are expected to testify as proceedings resume Thursday morning.
Yorgen Fenech, a businessman, has pleaded not guilty to two principal charges: complicity in the wilful homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia and criminal association to commit the murder.
Caruana Galizia, a columnist with The Malta Independent, was killed in a car bomb on 16 October 2017.
Five men have already been convicted in connection with Caruana Galizia’s assassination. Vince Muscat admitted his role in the murder in 2021 and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. Alfred and George Degiorgio each received 40-year prison sentences after pleading guilty in 2022, while Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025 for supplying the bomb used in the attack.
The prosecution is being led by Attorney General lawyers Godwin Cini, Anthony Vella and Danika Vella, assisted by Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud and Inspector Kurt Zahra. Fenech is represented by lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianella DeMarco and Gianluca Caruana Curran, while lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi are appearing parte civile on behalf of the Caruana Galizia family.
Judge Edwina Grima is presiding.
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18:14 That is a wrap on today’s proceedings, thank you for following. A roundup with all the key points will be on our website shortly. Proceedings resume Friday morning at 9am.
18:13 Judge Edwina Grima urges the defence to conclude its cross-examination so the witness can return home. However, defence lawyer Giannella de Marco tells the court she still has more than half an hour of questions remaining.
The court then discusses whether Vella should remain under the supervision of the court Mmarshal until his testimony resumes.
The defence asks the court to remind Vella that, as a witness under separation, he must not communicate with anyone and will have to surrender his mobile phone while in the court’s custody.
Visibly emotional, Vella tells the court he would rather remain there than return home.
“I prefer staying here. I don’t want those at home to see me like this,” he says, breaking down in tears.
Vella’s lawyer, Mario Mifsud, informs the court that his client had already been mentally prepared to remain at court overnight.
Judge Grima accepts this, and she adjourns Vella’s cross-examination until tomorrow. The witness will remain under the court’s supervision.
18:09 Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco returns to the issue of the documents Vella collected from Keith Schembri’s home. Vella reiterates that Schembri stopped halfway down the staircase and pointed towards the documents lying on a table.
De Marco then asks whether he had shared toast with Schembri before collecting the papers.
“Yes, that’s true,” Vella replies.
Vella adds that Schembri’s wife was getting ready to attend one of former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s children’s birthday parties.
After they finished eating, Schembri pointed towards the papers on the table and told him to take them.
17:51 Adrian Vella is questioned about the occasions on which he examined Yorgen Fenech following his arrest.
Vella confirms that during his first visit, Fenech was not referred to hospital. However, on the second occasion, he ordered that Fenech be taken to Mater Dei Hospital, where he later underwent an angiogram.
The procedure is used by doctors to find blocked or narrowed blood vessels.
The defence asks Vella whether Keith Schembri had called him to inform him that Yorgen Fenech had been arrested.
“Probably,” Vella replies.
17:44 The defence asks Adrian Vella whether Yorgen Fenech’s brother, Franco, had given him around seven grams of cocaine.
Vella replies that he does not know because he never saw anything.
Vella also confirms that it was not Yorgen Fenech who spoke about wanting to flee or who mentioned “rockets.”
Instead, he tells the court that those remarks were made by Franco Fenech.
17:31 The defence again refers Adrian Vella to his 2019 police statement, in which he had told investigators that he gave Yorgen Fenech three Ativan tablets before leaving him alone in Gozo.
Reading from the statement, the defence quotes Vella as saying: “I packed him with Ativan.”
Vella confirms the account, telling the court that he administered three Ativan tablets to Fenech before leaving him “quiet, alone and calm” in Gozo.
17:26 Adrian Vella also admits that he called Keith Schembri to inform him that he was taking Yorgen Fenech to Gozo.
The witness is pressed by the defence on why he had said that Fenech posed a risk to his own life but left him alone.
He insists that Fenech was not suicidal, adding that he felt comfortable leaving him alone because he had asked Fenech’s brother, Franco, to keep an eye on him using the old mobile phone he had provided.
17:18 Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco suggests that Yorgen Fenech was taken to Gozo because he posed a danger to himself.
“No,” Vella replies. “He needed to get out of the house.”
De Marco then refers Vella to an earlier part of his sworn testimony, in which he had indicated that Fenech may have been at risk of harming himself at the time.
She also asks whether the idea of taking Fenech to Gozo so he could rest had come from Keith Schembri during one of their phone calls.
“It could have, yes. But I can’t say for certain,” Vella replies.
Vella also agrees with the defence that Fenech had forgotten his mobile phone at home. He says Fenech told him he had left it behind, prompting Vella to offer him an old mobile phone belonging to his daughter, which did not have a SIM card.
The defence then turns to Vella’s earlier claim that Fenech had instructed him to park behind a horse trailer at the Gozo Channel terminal. She points out that motorists do not have the freedom to choose where they park while waiting to board the ferry.
Vella also tells the court that Fenech slept during the ferry crossing and says it is possible he gave him medication to calm him down, although he cannot remember for certain.
De Marco then confronts him with his 2019 police statement, in which Vella had told investigators that he had administered Ativan to Fenech.
17:04 The defence questions Adrian Vella on whether Keith Schembri had called him before he went to collect Yorgen Fenech. Vella maintains that he remembers Schembri calling while they were on the way to Ċirkewwa, but concedes it is possible Schembri had phoned earlier as well.
“I’m not going to say he definitely called me because I don’t know.”
The defence refers to Vella’s call records from 15 November 2019, which show a phone call at around 5:30pm, shortly before he drove to Portomaso.
“If you’re telling me Keith Schembri called me, then he probably did”, Vella replies.
The defence also points to another call from Keith Schembri at around 5:40pm. Vella says Schembri used to call him every day at the time because of his illness.
16:56 The defence questions Vella about who initiated the trip to Gozo.
“When you took Yorgen to Gozo, who called whom? Did you call Yorgen or did he call you?” the lawyer asks.
Vella replies that Fenech had called him.
De Marco then points to Vella’s police interrogation, noting that in his statement, he had said he simply went to Portomaso to pick Fenech up, rather than saying Fenech had called him.
Confronted with the inconsistency, Vella says he no longer remembers who called whom.
16:54 Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco requests a short break in proceedings, but Judge Edwina Grima declines the request and orders the cross-examination to begin immediately.
The defence begins asking Vella why he called Keith Schembri when police officers were outside his front door. “Keith told me to open the door,” Vella replies.
The defence points out that police had already tried calling him from an unfamiliar number before contacting his daughter. Vella explains that his phone had been on silent and that after learning police were trying to reach him, he managed to get hold of Schembri, who advised him to open the door.
Asked whether he had called Schembri twice, Vella confirms that he had.
“The first time he told you not to open the door, correct?” de Marco asks.
“Yes. But the second time I told him the police were outside, and he said: ‘Open the door,'” Vella replies.
Pressed on why he felt the need to phone Schembri twice, Vella answers: “Who did you expect me to call?”
16:46 The recording also captures Vella telling investigators Keith Schembri used to help Yorgen Fenech and Fenech believed Schembri would also help him “get out of the situation he was in”.
Asked by the prosecution whether he remembers making those remarks, Vella replies: “I don’t remember through memory, but I’ve just seen them in the video, so I must have said them. I can’t really say that I haven’t.”
Towards the end of his testimony, Vella is asked to describe the impact the events of November 2019 had on his life.
In a broken voice, he tells the jurors that “everyone turned their back on me.”
He says he lost his medical practice and banks severed ties with him. Recalling one particular incident, Vella says when his wife inherited money, it took the bank three months to allow the funds to be deposited.
Visibly emotional, Vella says the events of 2019 completely changed his life, adding that he withdrew from public life and no longer wanted to go anywhere. He says “my life became a disaster.”
16:33 In the recording, Vella tells investigators Yorgen Fenech had said, “If I go down, he’ll go down with me”.
Vella says Fenech expected Schembri to help him.
Investigators continue asking Vella whether Fenech had indeed made the statement, to which Vella replies that he had said “something along those lines.”
However, he insists Fenech never told him Schembri was involved in the assassination, only that he expected his assistance.
The recording continues with investigators questioning Vella about the same remark. Vella again maintains Fenech had said, “If I go down, he’ll go down with me,” but reiterates that he never understood this to mean Keith Schembri was an accomplice.
Judge Edwina Grima reminds jurors neither the questions asked by police nor the answers given during Adrian Vella’s interrogation constitute evidence.
16:31 Asked whether he had ever discussed Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder with others, including Keith Schembri, Vella replies: “We spoke every day, it’s possible,” but insists he never received any information about the case from Schembri.
In another reference to his statement, Vella had told investigators he once suggested to Schembri that Yorgen Fenech could be behind Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. Schembri allegedly replied: “Where are you getting these ideas from?”
Cini continues reading from the statement, which alleges Schembri told Vella: “Who knows how many people are involved in this conspiracy”.
The court will now be shown the audio-visual recording of Vella’s 2019 police interrogation.
16:30 Vella maintains Yorgen Fenech’s heavy cocaine abuse in the months leading up to November 2019 had severely affected his mental state.
He tells the court during their informal meetings, his sole concern was helping Fenech overcome his drug addiction. “I wanted him to recover,” Vella says.
He again insists he never discussed Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder with Fenech, adding: “Let me make this crystal clear.”
Prosecutor Godwin Cini refers Vella to another part of his 2019 police statement, in which he had allegedly told investigators that Fenech “started taking cocaine because of the problem he had gotten himself into.”
Vella says he does not remember making that statement.
Asked during his police interrogation when that conversation had taken place, Vella had reportedly replied that it was on the day he collected the documents from Keith Schembri and passed them on to Fenech.
However, Vella says it was not on this day.
16:11 The prosecution now refers Vella to another part of his 2019 police statement, in which he had said Franco Fenech drew him a map because he said they would be switching off their mobile phones.
Asked whether he remembers this, Vella replies: “I remember Franco switching off his phone.”
Vella goes on to insist he never discussed Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder with Yorgen Fenech, repeating: “Never, ever, ever.” He tells the court asking Fenech about the case would have destroyed the trust he had built with him.
Vella: “I only wanted to help him. He maintains the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia was never discussed because Fenech was suffering from depression.”
15:57 Witness doctor Adrian Vella returns to the stand and prosecutor Godwin Cini resumes his questioning.
Asked whether he had heard any countries mentioned other than Mexico and Dubai, Vella replies that he had not.
Cini then refers him to his police statement, in which Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud had asked whether he knew anything about a possible trip to France.
According to the statement, Vella had replied he did not, adding that references to countries such as Tunisia, Dubai and Mexico were all part of what he described as Fenech’s “fantasy.”
Cini then turns to a reference in Vella’s police statement to a man known as “il-Poodle”, whom Vella identifies as Charles Azzopardi, who is involved in the tuna industry and owns fishing vessels. Charles Azzopardi is owner of Azzopardi fisheries.
Judge Edwina Grima asks Vella why he had called Azzopardi.
Reading from the police statement, Cini says Vella had told investigators he had asked Azzopardi whether he had a boat available. The statement indicates Vella contacted “il-Poodle” after Yorgen Fenech allegedly asked him to see whether a vessel could be arranged to facilitate his escape.
Vella says Azzopardi has many tuna boats.
“I probably never called him and simply said I did,” Vella replies.
Vella insists that his alleged conversation with Azzopardi was most likely fictitious, suggesting he may have invented it because Yorgen Fenech was determined to leave Malta.
15:43 Prosecutor Anthony Vella argues the prosecution only refers to Adrian Vella’s police statement after first putting the relevant questions to the witness.
He maintains the statement is used solely when the witness says he cannot remember an event or needs his memory refreshed, adding case law supports the use of prior statements for that purpose.
Judge Edwina Grima notes the issue had already been raised earlier in the proceedings and the court had already ruled on it. She reiterates a witness must first give evidence before being confronted with references from a previous statement.
The judge rules that, since witness statements form part of the acts of the case, prosecutors may refer to a witness’s earlier statement. However, she stresses such references are limited to testing the witness’s evidence or refreshing their memory on facts they cannot recall.
15:26 Judge Edwina Grima, lawyers, the accused and journalists are back in Hall 22.
13:06 Court has adjourned for lunch break. Proceedings will resume at 3pm.
13:05 GC: “Regarding the discussions about planes and helicopters, do you know why they were being mentioned?”
AV: “No.”
Cini then refers the witness to another section of his previous police statement.
GC: “You had told investigators that, had it been up to his brother, Yorgen would have fled that same day and continued on to Sicily.”
AV: “It could be. The two of them were not in a good mental state at the time.”
The prosecutor also points out that, earlier in the day, Vella had testified he did not recall any country being mentioned during the conversations in Gozo.
Cini then reads from Vella’s police statement, in which he had allegedly told investigators that he heard references to a private jet going to Mexico, before Franco suggested, “Let’s go to Sicily.”
12:59 Prosecutor Godwin Cini refers to another statement given by Vella.
GC: “In your statement, you said Yorgen told you he needed to transfer some shares. Do you remember him telling you that?”
AV: “I never involved myself in those matters. I have no idea.”
GC: “What happened in Gozo regarding the transfer of shares?”
AV: “I think there was some sort of disagreement between the brothers, but I was outside and couldn’t hear properly.”
GC: “Did they sign anything? They did not sign any share transfer documents?”
AV: “I was outside, I couldn’t see anything. I don’t remember any details about a transfer of shares. If I did, I would be ‘the Prophet Isaiah.'”
12:46 Prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC): “Did you take any precautions on the way to Gozo?”
Doctor Adrian Vella (AV): “There was no need. We drove from his house to the office and then straight to Gozo.”
Vella insists his only intention was to help Fenech.
AV: “I treated him like he was my son. I wanted to find him a team of lawyers.”
Becoming emotional, Vella says he had ‘gone through hell’ since the events.
AV: “I’m afraid to leave my house. Patients still call to ask me, ‘Are you opening today?'”
Prosecutor Cini continues reading from Vella’s previous police statement given to Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud and Inspector Kurt Zahra.
GC: “In your statement, you said Fenech told you, ‘Don’t let anyone see you.’ You also told investigators Yorgen said, ‘I’m in trouble.’
Cini continues reading the statement, saying Vella had told police Fenech changed into all-black clothing, put on a black ski hat and covered himself with a scarf.
The prosecutor also refers to another part of the statement in which Vella allegedly said Fenech instructed him to park behind a horse trailer so that nobody would see them.
AV: “I don’t recall.”
12:42 GC: “Do you know why Yorgen wanted to run away?”
AV: “I never said he wanted to run away.”
GC: “Did he have any travel documents with him?”
AV: “No.”
Cini then refers the witness to another passage from his police statement.
GC: “You had told police Fenech had ‘his passport and everything with him.’ You also told police Fenech wanted to flee because of the circumstances at the time, that he might be implicated in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. Do you remember saying that?”
AV: “I can’t remember. I don’t remember saying that.”
12:38 The alleged reference was made to Keith Schembri’s cousin Ryan Schembri who had been charged with money laundering, misappropriation, fraud, making fraudulent gain, offering financial investment services without a licence, knowingly making use of forged documents.
Schembri had fled the country in 2014 with a reported €40 million in debts left behind from the More Supermarkets crash.
He had initially moved to Dubai, where he lived with partner Aviva Ryan. Legal sources told MaltaToday that it was initially impossible to extradite him from the UAE, due to the fact that there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. No charges were filed against him at that time.
At some point after that, the couple subsequently moved to London, and later to Scotland, living under the radar.
But the breakthrough in the case came when UK authorities had informed their Maltese counterparts that Schembri had been fined for speeding there. This had led to an investigation by the Maltese police which found evidence showing that Schembri resided in the United Kingdom and had bank accounts, as well as a partner there.
UK company records also show both Schembri and his partner Aviva Ryan opened two companies in London, Bors Trading and DAL Capital Partners.
Schembri was arrested on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant that had been issued by Interpol some years back. Maltese police were present in Scotland for the arrest.
As boss of the bankrupt More supermarket chain, he could be connected to the supermarket debt that led to the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop. Chircop had been one of the ‘investors’ in the mysterious More Supermarkets bust. The lawyer had loaned €750,000 to More Supermarkets in March 2014.
Appearing as debtors in the contract were Schembri’s business partner Etienne Cassar, as well as Adrian Agius, one of the men first arrested by police in December 2017 in connection with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Together, Schembri and Cassar, and Agius, owned shares in another joint company called Interaa Holdings.
Agius, known as ‘tal-Maksar’, was previously a director linked to the More Hamrun supermarket. Agius held a directorship in a company related to More’s main shareholder Ryan Schembri, Interaa Holdings, with the shareholders being made up of Schembri’s own Cassar & Schembri Marketing (40%), M&R Construction (15%) and Panelix Supplies (25%), and Agius’s Imora Holdings (20%).
12:35 The prosecutor now questions the witness about Yorgen Fenech’s mobile phones.
AV: “I don’t think he only had one mobile phone. He sometimes called me from different numbers.”
GC: “Why did he want to go to the office?”
AV: “We barely spoke about it. I don’t know.”
GC: “In your police statement, you said: ‘Yorgen told me, ‘I’m going to empty out some things.'”
AV: “I don’t remember saying that.”
Cini now refers the witness to another part of his statement.
GC: “You also told the police Yorgen showed you a pouch containing a stack of cash. You said he told you, ‘I brought some money,’.”
AV: “It could be, I don’t know.”
GC: “Who did Yorgen call on the way to Gozo?”
AV: “It could have been Keith Schembri, I guess.” Vella previously said he does not know who he called.
GC: “In your statement, you said you overheard Yorgen telling Keith: “I’m going to Gozo. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if I’m going to run. What do I do, I escape, or no?”
You had said Keith told Yorgen not to run: “Go to Gozo and don’t do anything silly, relax, we speak later. Don’t act like my cousin.”
AV: “I don’t remember hearing anything related on this and I don’t remember saying this to police. Time has passed, I don’t recall.”
12:03: Prosecutor Godwin Cini then refers the witness to his police statement of 27 November 2019
GC: “In your statement, you said there were rumours Melvin had been arrested. Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud asked you, ‘How did you know Melvin had been arrested?’, to which you replied: ‘Through Keith, and I decided to go to Yorgen to see if he was okay.’
Do you remember telling the police you went to see Yorgen out of your own initiative?”
AV: “I’m trying to forget this whole episode. I have PTSD.”
GC: “Did you know Melvin?”
AV: “No. All I knew was he used to deliver meat to the Fenech family. I didn’t know him personally.”
GC: “Today, you testified that when you took Yorgen to Gozo he was very calm. However, in your police statement you had said, ‘He was shaking terribly.’ You also told him, ‘If you have a problem, let’s go to Gozo.'”
AV: “I wanted to give him the right advice and not only medically.”
GC: “In your statement, you said Yorgen told you “I think I’m in deep shit”.
AV: “I’m not sure, could be.”
11:59: After a brief break, proceedings resume.
Resuming his examination, prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC) reminds witness doctor Adrian Vella (AV) about the night police officers went to his home.
GC: “Were you alone?”
AV: “No. My wife, my daughter and my daughter’s boyfriend were also there.”
GC: “Did you receive or make any other calls?”
AV: “My daughter told me someone was calling from the police depot. I then called Keith Schembri to tell him the police were at my house and that I had received a call from the depot.”
“If I didn’t tell him, who was I supposed to tell?” he says.
The witness adds he believes Gianluca Caruana Curran may have reported him to the police because he had not attended the meeting the lawyer had asked him to.
He also says he may have called Schembri more than once that night, although he could not remember for certain.
The witness again remarks the police had been banging on his door “very excessively.”
Recalling what happened after he was taken to the police depot, the witness becomes emotional and wipes away tears.
AV: “They locked me inside a cage,” he said, adding that he was left there for hours before being taken upstairs.
He testifies Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud, Inspector Kurt Zahra and former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar were present. According to the witness, Cutajar was pacing while making telephone calls.
“Come on, don’t take long,” Cutajar allegedly told him.
The witness says he was then questioned by investigators before being allowed to return home.
He adds Arnaud later contacted him again and asked him to return to the police depot for a second interview.
11:10: GC: “Two days later, on 26 November, you went to the police depot to speak to the police, correct?”
AV: “It was raining and it was around 11:30pm when they started knocking on my door repeatedly. I said to myself, ‘They’ve come for me because of those papers.'”
The witness says he did not open the door immediately. Instead, he phoned Keith Schembri.
GC: “Why did you call Keith?”
AV: “Because we were friends. Keith told me: ‘It’s better if you open the door for them.'”
The judge calls a short recess after this.
11:08: Prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC): “How many times did you go to Keith Schembri’s house?”
Doctor Adrian Vella (AV): “A few times. On this occasion, I picked up the four documents, which were face down and folded. I then drove to Yorgen Fenech at Portomaso.”
The witness is shown photographs of the area at Keith Schembri’s residence and asked to indicate where the documents had been. He is then shown a photograph of one of the documents.
GC: “Have you ever seen this document before? Do you recognise it?”
AV: “No, I had never seen it before. I don’t know what it contained.”
Describing what happened when he arrived at Portomaso, the witness says he “got the fright of my life.”
Yorgen Fenech was in what he refers to as the “whisky room.” Also present were lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran and a woman seated on a sofa, whom he believes may have been a lawyer, although he does not know her identity.
“There were police officers, officials and so many people,” he says.
He explains he hurriedly handed the documents to Caruana Curran, thinking it was better to give them directly to the lawyer.
Fenech then took the papers from Caruana Curran, picked up additional A4 sheets and began writing.
GC: “What was being said?”
AV: “Fenech was talking to himself, repeating, ‘It can’t be, it can’t be,’ while writing continuously in a frantic manner. I also heard him say “if i go down, everyone will go down with me”.
AV: “Suddenly, Yorgen Fenech’s wife came into the room and said that he had to go because the police escort had arrived. Fenech immediately put the papers aside and ignored them.”
GC: “He didn’t say why he had to go downstairs or who he was going down with?”
AV: “No.”
10:55: During his testimony in the jury trial, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri had denied passing on the documents.
He had even challenged the courts to bring Adrian Vella for a head-to-head confrontation over the claim.
Schembri had even said he would sue him for libel ‘because he is lying.’
10:50: Prosecutor Godwin Cini (GC): “I want to take you to a week later, Sunday, 24 November.”
Doctor Adrian Vella: “At around 8:30am, Keith Schembri called me and invited me to go over to his house for a whiskey. I told him I was not coming because I was busy.
About two hours later, I received a call from an unsaved number. I did not answer and shortly after, I received a message from the same number saying, “Yors.”. Then I called the number and it was Yorgen.
He told me, ‘Go and collect something from Keith.’”
GC: “Four days earlier, Yorgen was arrested, did you see him?
AV: “I was called to the police depot to carry out a medical examination on Yorgen. I examined him and ordered he be taken by ambulance to Mater Dei Hospital.
I did not accompany him in the ambulance, contrary to what was reported by someone in the media. I want to make that clear.
Yorgen was complaining of chest pain, and I ordered he undergo an angiogram. Three police officers remained with him at all times.”
GC: “After Yorgen told you to go to Keith, what happened? Didn’t you ask him what it was he wanted you to collect?”
AV: “No, I didn’t ask him. I went to Keith Schembri’s house. The maid opened the door for me and I briefly spoke to Keith’s wife before Keith came down the stairs. He finally came, he stopped mid stair way and told me, “Take those” and pointed to some documents on the table.
I picked up four documents. There were several papers there, but these four had been set aside separately.”
10:35: Asked what happened the next day, Vella replied: “On Sunday, I was in Malta. Franco had to return to Malta because he was meant to pick me up. I called him, but he did not answer. I was still very offended they had not trusted me and had asked me to leave my own home.”
“Why do you think they did not trust you?,” prosecutor Cini asks.
“I don’t know. […] The next time I heard anything about them was through the media, when Yorgen was arrested at Portomaso three days later,” Vella replies.
Vella said that when Fenech was arrested, they still had the keys to his house in Gozo. “The driver eventually returned them to me, and until then I could not even go back to Gozo.”
10:25: Asked to recall exactly what happened in that Gozo trip, Vella asys that it was eight years ago and he had been through a lot. “I helped them, and they tried to drown me,” he says.
He testifies that he remembers hearing a lot of raised voices. “I started hearing talk about a helicopter and a rocket,” he says, adding that the brothers were not in a good state at all.
He says that he personally called lawyers but as soon as he mentioned Yorgen Fenech’s name, they refused to take the case.
Becoming emotional, the witness said he has tried to put the episode behind him because it had hurt him and his family.
“It hurt. I did a lot for many people, and they all turned their backs on me,” he says as tears roll down his face.
Eventually the brothers took his phone and asked him to wait in the back garden.
“The two then began shouting and yelling in such a loud and aggressive manner. Then they took my phone and began calling themselves,” Vella says.
“After around 15 minutes, I went back in, took my phone and left. I was so angry and offended that they had asked me to leave, so I walked out,” he continues.
Asked to elaborate on the helicopter and rocket reference, Vella replies: “I don’t think they were talking about PlayStation.”
“They went from zero to a hundred. They weren’t in a good state. You can’t imagine how someone changes when they’re under the influence of cocaine. The best thing I could do was leave,” he says.
He says that he did not see either of the brothers taking cocaine, but saw white powder on the floor of the house.
10:05: Vella testifies that Franco was also present at the Gozo trip, and at one point he and his brother told him that they were looking for a lawyer.
Asked why, the doctor replies: “I don’t know. Franco told me he needed one.”
Both brothers then used his phone to get in touch with several lawyers, but nobody seemed to want to represent them. He recalls a lot of shouting and being asked to leave the room a lot, so he decided to go back to Malta.
Around that time, Vella testifies, there were reports that three people were being linked to Daphne’s murder, and word was circulating that Fenech may have been one of them.
Yorgen’s brother Franco told him as much, Vella testified. This led to Fenech being focused on finding legal assistance rather than getting the medical help he needed.
“He shut everyone out. He hadn’t yet realised the state he was in,” Vella says.
09:45: “He was definitely under the influence, but he was not hyperactive. He may have taken benzodiazepines to calm himself down, although that is only my opinion. He wasn’t there mentally. We barely spoke,” Vella says of Fenech on that trip.
He says that Fenech asked Vella to borrow his phone, saying that he had left his at home, and made three calls with it.
Vella says that he does not recall what the calls were about or who he was calling, but says that he was aggressive to the callers. “He sounded angry. He was under the influence and the anger made sense,” Vella says.
He says that Fenech’s brother Franco had called because he was worried about Yorgen’s condition. Vella says that both he and Franco had spent years trying to persuade Fenech to go to rehabilitation for his drug addiction, but they would be brushed off.
Occasionally, Fenech would agree to it and fill out the paperwork – but “that’s as far as we’d get. In the end, he wouldn’t go.”
09:30: Vella is asked about Fenech’s condition when Melvin Theuma was arrested on 15 November 2019.
He says that Fenech called him from Gozo and said that he wasn’t feeling well. He continues that Fenech had been in a poor mental state for months, likely due to his cocaine addiction, and would frequently isolate himself from people.
He says that he urged Fenech to go to Gozo to rest, and then picked him up from Portomaso where he could tell that he was under the influence of cocaine. “He was coked up. After 40 years as a doctor, I could tell,” the doctor testifies.
Fenech did not speak much throughout the journey, Vella says.
09:25: Fielding questions from the prosecution, Vella tells jurors that he has known Yorgen Fenech for 32 years and has been the Fenech family doctor for 38 years.
“We were practically family,” Vella says, although he adds that he was not part of Fenech’s closer circle of friends.
Vella says he was introduced to Keith Schembri by Fenech in around 2016, as Schembri was seriously ill with cancer at that point. He used to check-up on Schembri while he underwent chemotherapy and also recalled accompanying both him and Fenech on a medical trip overseas.
09:15: Judge Edwina Grima is in the courtroom.
The prosecution has told the judge that murder middleman Melvin Theuma is to testify next week, and asked that special arrangements be made. The judge reassures that they have “everything prepared.”
Theuma’s testimony is likely to take around a week.
Today’s first witness though is Dr Adrian Vella, who was Yorgen Fenech’s doctor.
He has been a recurring figure in this trial, as prosecutors allege that he was an intermediary between Yorgen Fenech and Theuma. He is also alleged to have passed letters on between Fenech and Keith Schembri.
09:00: Good morning and welcome to day 32 of proceedings in the trial against Yorgen Fenech. We expect to get underway shortly.
RSS Feed Source: Independent Malta Dr Adrian Vella testifies in day 32 of Yorgen Fenech trial