Keith Schembri picked up by police for questioning

Former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri has been taken in for questioning over suspected financial crimes. 

Schembri was picked up by police at his Mellieha home at around 7am on Wednesday, The Malta Independent has learnt. 

On Tuesday, former Minister Konrad Mizzi was also held by the police for interrogation by the Financial Crime Investigation Department, whose offices are in Hamrun.

Keith Schembri’s lawyers, Mark Vassallo and Edward Gatt, were seen entering the premises at around 9am, but gave no comments to the media.

Mizzi and Schembri had both opened companies in Panama which were later exposed in the Panama Papers revelations.

Schembri, who resigned in November last year in connection with police investigations into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, had been arrested in September after a court decree issued on the Attorney General’s request days following the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry into whether Schembri had taken a €100,000 kickback on passport sales.

A court had ordered the freezing of the assets held by Schembri, Brian Tonna, managing partner of Nexia BT, among others, as well as the companies they are involved in.

The court had decreed that there was reasonable suspicion that Schembri and Tonna are guilty of crime (money laundering) under clause 3 of cap 313 of the Laws of Malta. 

Schembri filed a constitutional appeal over the freezing of his assets.