Judge dismisses Degiorgio brothers' human rights breach claim

A court has thrown out a human rights case filed by brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio before their trial for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The brothers had claimed in the human rights case that the filing of the Bill of Indictment against them precluded them from cross-examining witnesses.

The lawsuit was filed in 2021, one of several constitutional cases filed by the Degiorgio brothers, who in this instance were arguing that the magistrate presiding over the compilation of evidence against them had refused to order the exhibition of relevant phone recordings made by Melvin Theuma. 

In a decision handed down this morning by Mr Justice Grazio Mercieca, presiding the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction, dismissed the brothers’ claim, pointing out that the fact that the brothers had pleaded guilty to the offences listed in the Bill of Indictment meant that there was no possibility of him ordering a retrial and also fatally undermined their constitutional claim.

George and Alfred Degiorgio, 59 and 57 years old respectively, were jailed for 40 years each on 14 October after pleading guilty to having carried out the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb explosion near her house in Bidnija on 16 October 2017. In addition to the prison sentence, the brothers were ordered to pay €42,930 in costs.

Their constitutional claim in this case centred on their argument that they had been placed under a Bill of Indictment before the prosecution had declared its evidence to be closed, thereby depriving them of the opportunity to cross-examine several witnesses. 

In his judgement about the constitutional claim, Mr Justice Merceieca noted that the Degiorgio brothers were complaining of a breach of their fundamental right to a fair hearing in the criminal proceedings leading to their trial by jury. The judge also noted that, shortly after the jury was empanelled, they had admitted their guilt.

This meant that any doubts about any prejudice which they might have suffered as a result of the claimed breach of fair hearing rights were reduced to nothing, the judge said. 

The court decreed that it could not uphold the brothers’ request that it order the cancellation of the acts of the compilation of evidence and re-start the compilation proceedings from the beginning or send the case back to the Court of Magistrates to hear witnesses which had not been heard.

Neither was there the possibility of the court ordering the same Court of Magistrates to revoke any decrees or to order the Attorney General to comply with an order by the Criminal Court to summon FBI agents to testify about assistance they had provided to the investigation.

Although the brothers had not formally ceded the case in question on the merits, because the same merits had now conclusively been dealt with, the court does not have to rule on those merits. 

“It is the Criminal Court which has the jurisdiction to rule on the admissibility of witnesses or allegations of a procedural nature and the applicant should raise these issues before that court. As previously stated, the Attorney General in no way shape of form denied the applicants access to the courts, and the same applicant has access to the Criminal Court where he can make his requests for the court’s consideration.”

The Degiorgio brothers had been held under arrest since 4 December 2017, having been charged the next day together with Vincent Muscat with having committed the journalist’s premeditated murder.

Muscat had admitted guilt last year and jailed for 14 years after a plea bargain agreement with the prosecution to testify in other criminal cases.