[WATCH] Degiorgios on trial: ‘Business as usual’

Court proceedings in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case took a dramatic twist when Vince Muscat pleaded guilty to his involvement.

In February 2021, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a plea bargain agreement with the prosecution. Muscat admitted to all six heads of indictment.

In her judgment, Madame Justice Edwina Grima mentioned that Muscat and two others had “associated themselves with third parties” to carry out the crimes. This was the first official nod to there being more than three persons involved in the murder.

On that same afternoon, police were able to arrest brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, the Maksar brothers, together with their associate Jamie Vella, on suspicions that they had supplied the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia.

After admitting to the charges, Vince Muscat shed even more light on how the three men tracked Caruana Galizia’s movements before killing her.

From identifying a vantage point in Bidnija which allowed them to see Caruana Galizia up close from almost 10 metres away to an initial plan to kill the journalist with a sniper rifle, Muscat lifted the lid on their actions in the months preceding the assassination.

Muscat testified that George Degiorgio wanted to use a bomb because it was easier to install, and ultimately cleaner.

Muscat testified how they tracked Caruana Galizia’s movements and how they practiced opening a car similar to hers without leaving a trace.

He also gave details of the bomb and how Alfred Degiorgio attached a petrol bottle to the shiny case in the eventuality that the 500g of explosives wasn’t strong enough.

Two days after that fateful afternoon on 16 October 2017, when Caruana Galizia was assassinated, the hitmen collected their cash from Melvin Theuma at a rendezvous in Marsaskala.

The Degiorgio brothers still deny the charges but in a clamorous statement given during an interview for a podcast on the murder, George Degiorgio admitted to carrying out the hit job. “It was business as usual,” he told his interviewer.