Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, is in a stable condition after being discovered at home with knife wounds to his neck and torso Tuesday night, police said Wednesday.
Theuma told authorities that his injuries were “his own doing and nobody else was there,” Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà said at a press conference, according to Malta Today. There were no signs of a struggle or a break in, the commissioner said, and police had been stationed as protection outside his house. According to the paper, it is they who entered his house and found him a pool of blood.
Prior to the incident, Theuma had spent Tuesday in court testifying at a so-called compilation of evidence against prominent businessman Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the 2017 car bombing that killed Caruana Galizia, a journalist who investigated corruption in the highest echelons of Maltese government and society. Theuma was due to return to court on Wednesday to continue testifying.
Gafà said Maltese police had collected evidence for investigation into Tuesday’s incident, and would continue to work alongside the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol.
Fenech was arrested in November 2019 on board his luxury yacht and was later charged with complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder. The arrest came after Malta’s then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat offered to pardon Theuma in exchange for his testimony. Fenech denies the allegations.
Muscat was forced to step down amid a backlash over his handling of the Caruana Galizia case.