Vince Muscat bail sitting heard behind closed doors

A bail sitting for Vincent Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, has been heard behind closed doors this morning.

The lawyer appearing for Muscat, Marc Sant, had made the request for bail around five weeks ago.

It appears that the bail application had also sought to clarify the status of the police investigation into the man, one of the three accused of detonating the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Before the court was asked to send the press out of the courtroom, Madame Justice Edwina Grima appeared to reject other requests contained in the bail application. Sources indicated that these may be related to Muscat’s second request for a presidential pardon, which has been pending since last December.

“I cannot order the investigators to do these things, you cannot use a bail request to find out the status of the investigation because nothing had changed,” said the judge today.

But before explaining himself further, the lawyer asked that the press be sent out of the courtroom “due to the sensitivity of the matter at hand.”

The court upheld the request and the hearing continued in private.