Legal bid to have Theuma's phantom job testimony struck off falls short

A magistrate has turned down a request to refer Melvin Theuma’s testimony about a phantom job to a constitutional court. 

The request, filed by lawyers for defendants that include former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and murder accused Yorgen Fenech, sought to have statements that Theuma had made under oath about the phantom job struck from the case.

Defence lawyers argued that their inability to cross-examine Theuma, who refused to testify in the case, meant that their clients' right to a fair trial was breached. 

Theuma, a self-confessed middleman in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, had testified in separate proceedings that he had been given a phantom government job, five months before that assassination and after he had an audience with Schembri at Castille. 

Those claims led to the police pressing charges against five people, including Schembri and Fenech, in connection with the job given to Theuma. 

The others are former head of customer care at OPM Sandro Craus, ex-family ministry private secretary Anthony Mario Ellul and former CEO of state-owned Housing Maintenance and Embellishment Co Ltd, Anthony Muscat. 

All five co-accused deny charges of theft...