Keith Schembri’s phone goes missing before being found in other case file

The device has been held by the courts as part of the evidence in a money laundering case against the former OPM chief of staff.

It somehow ended up in the records of the criminal case against Zenith Finance directors Matthew Pace and Lorraine Falzon.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, who is presiding over the money laundering case, attributed blame for the disappearance to the courts’ maladministration.

The magistrate’s criticism came just one week after the Association of the Maltese Judiciary warned that the court system was “on the brink of collapse”.

Schembri’s lawyers observed that other lawyers representing an unnamed third party in separate criminal proceedings asked the Criminal Court for the device.

They said those lawyers asked the court to authorise Schembri’s phone to be produced in evidence in those separate proceedings.

Such “coincidences” and timings were sparking “suspicions” as to what actually happened “behind the scenes”, Schembri’s lawyers claimed. 

Schembri now wants his phone to be excluded from evidence, arguing that the odd way it was lost and found was “far more serious than simply bad administration”.

His lawyers have filed constitutional proceedings, claiming that Schembri’s right to a fair hearing has been breached and requesting the removal from evidence.

The episode reminded of Keith Schembri’s missing other phone when he was arrested in connection to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In 2019, the former OPM chief of staff claimed he had misplaced the device – which had been last turned on roughly 30 minutes before his arrest in Melliħa.