Murder compilation: Witness recounts how Vince Muscat's family was offered hush money
The compilation of evidence against Adrian Agius, his brother Robert Agius, and their associates Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio continues • Witness recounts approach for hush money to be paid
10 March 2021, 8:34am
Matthew Agius
Matthew Agius
3 min read
Murder suspect George Degiorgio being led out of court on Tuesday (James Bianchi/MaltaToday)
Jamie Vella and Robert Agius had offered to buy Vince Muscat’s silence by paying the convicted murderer’s wife and daughter €1,500 per month.
The offer was turned down and Muscat went on to reach a plea bargain agreement by admitting his involvement in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder. Muscat was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A relative of Muscat testified in court today how he was approached by a certain Jamie while drinking at his regular watering hole in Marsa.
The witness, whose name cannot be mentioned on court order, was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Robert and Adrian Agius, Vella and George Degiorgio, who are charged with involvement in the murders of Caruana Galizia and lawyer Carmel Chircop.
At the time of the approach, Muscat was in prison and had started talking to police. Muscat and brothers George and Alfred were charged with Caruana Galizia’s murder in December 2017 and have been kept in preventive custody ever since.
Robert Agius and Vella are accused of supplying the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. They were arrested a fortnight ago just after Muscat was sentenced to prison and spilled the beans.
Muscat was also given a presidential pardon to tell all on the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop in 2015.
The witness said that Jamie had approached him at a Marsa bar and asked to speak to him outside. He was accompanied by a Robert.
An offer of €1,500 per month was made to Muscat’s wife and daughter so that Muscat would not identify them.
A few months later, the witness was again approached for a reply and he informed Jamie that the family was not interested. It was some months later that the Muscat family went to the police with the incident.
Other witnesses today included police inspectors Shawn Pawney and Wayne Camilleri, who testified on the objects that were confiscated by the police when the accused were arrested last month.
Another witness, John Bugeja, testified how he had rented a garage in Mosta on behalf of Robert Agius. Bugeja said he accepted because he was indebted to Agius, who wanted to keep a car inside the garage. Bugeja said Agius returned the keys after the two-year lease was up.
The garage is most probably the place where the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia was stored.
Background
In yesterday's first sitting, the court heard how Robert Agius had acquired a vehicle similar to the one used by Daphne Caruana Galizia so that her executioners could train on how to defeat the car lock.
The Aguis brothers are facing charges of involvement in two murders, including that of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Robert Agius and Jamie Vella are charged with supplying the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017.
Adrian Agius is charged with commissioning the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop in 2015. Vella and Degiorgio are charged with executing Chircop’s assassination in a garage complex in Birkirkara.
Degiorgio is currently undergoing separate procedures for his involvement in the Caruana Galizia murder.
Key courtroom players
Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo is presiding.
Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene Darmanin are defence counsel to the Agius brothers. Lawyer William Cuschieri is appearing for George Degiorgio.
Lawyer George Camilleri is representing the Attorney General in the proceedings, while Superintendent Keith Arnaud and Inspectors Shawn Pawney and Wayne Camilleri are prosecuting.
Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia are appearing parte civile for the Caruana Galizia family, while lawyer Vince Galea is appearing for the Chircop family.
12:24 That’s it for today. Thank you for following.
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12:24 The court puts the case off for 22 March at 8:30am.
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12:23 Lawyer Jason Azzopardi files a note apologising for his previous comments and explains that he had been joking with the registrar and doesn’t examine 5th year papers.
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12:22 Cuschieri: “Everyone carries his own cross and I don't want my client to carry the same cross he carried for three years.”
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12:21 Cuschieri says there would be unnecessary prejudicial pre-trial publicity and suffer delays - the other compilation of evidence took three years. “The charges should never have been issued in this way in the first place,” he says.
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12:19 Cuschieri says Degiorgio has already gone through the judicial process on the Caruana Galizia murder and tomorrow “we have a sitting before Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit to hear the accused who had admitted”.
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12:14 Lawyer William Cuschieri, who is appearing for George Degiorgio, says the other side is not understanding the point of his client’s request. “Here, all the charges are not coming from the same fact,” the lawyer says.
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12:13 He argues that it would make no difference to George Degiorgio as to whether the cases are separated or not.
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12:11 The court says it received a reply to a request by George Degiorgio to separate his case from that of the other accused. The Attorney General lawyer says that this is at the discretion of the AG and the request must come from the AG.
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12:10 Pawney ends his testimony.
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12:05 The inspector says that the distance is from the witness stand and the deputy registrar's desk. The suspects cannot see who is looking at them.
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12:05 Abela: “If I suggest that the distance between the accused and the glass is around three or four feet, do you agree?”
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12:04 Pawney says he is unable to confirm the presence of the magistrate but adds that he had seen him in the building before the parade started.
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12:03 Defence lawyer Alfred Abela starts his cross-examination. The witness confirms that he had been in the room where the identification parade took place.
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12:01 Inspector Shawn Pawney takes the stand again. He gives an account of the interrogation of Robert Agius. They had discussed disclosure and given him the opportunity to speak to lawyers before the interrogation. Agius opted not to answer any questions.
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11:55 The safe was opened in a workshop in the presence of the police and court experts, Camilleri says. The inspector says documents were found inside and listed by the court experts.
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11:54 A safe was also found in his bedroom wall. Asked about the key to the safe, Adrian Agius said he didn't have it because it belonged to the owner of the property. Camilleri says that Agius told police they would do him a favour if they took it out and seized it.
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11:52 Camilleri tells the court that Agius was escorted to his residence in Mellieħa, where a search was carried out in his presence. Several objects were found and taken into evidence. These included: two laptops, eight hard drives, four Samsung phones, an iPhone, five starter packs, an SD card and memory card.
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11:50 Camilleri continues to list the items confiscated by the police. A laptop bag containing documents was found in the luggage boot of the car. Also, an Egyptian travel document was found near the spare wheel. Under the vehicle, two small bags of a white substance were found. These were photographed by scene of crime officers. The car was sealed and transported to the police depot.
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11:47 In the armrest compartment a Vodafone sim card was found. There was also a compartment under the driver's seat that closed off with a little door. Camilleri says that in it a large transparent plastic bag wrapped in tape containing a brown substance was found. A box with seven DVDs was also found in the car.
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11:45 Camilleri says that from the front seat, he was also told that two mobile phones were seized. An A4 paper folded into four containing initials and numbers, thought to represent sums of money, was also found. Camilleri says that four plastic folders of documents were also retrieved. From the glove compartment, insurance and other documents relating to the car were found.
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11:42 Several cards belonging to Adrian Agius, including a Natwest visa, were found there too.
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11:42 Camilleri says that when the vehicle was searched, he had noticed on the front passenger seat, a black bag containing a Samsung phone and an amount of cash - €3,000 (60x €50 notes tied with a rubber band). There was another bag, containing €460 in a wallet.
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11:39 Camilleri gives an account of Adrian Agius's arrest. He was told it was about the murder of Carmel Chircop and given his rights, the inspector says.
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11:38 Pawney steps off the witness stand. Inspector Wayne Camilleri is next to testify.
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11:37 The inspector says he had been present for the deposition of George Degiorgio and Adrian Agius. The accused “literally said nothing”, he tells the court.
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11:36 On 24 February, the accused were arraigned before duty magistrate Victor Axiaq.
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11:35 Pawney tells the court that Agius did not answer any questions during interrogation.
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11:35 The prosecution was informed by the expert that the 350g package contained heroin. Two sachets of suspected cocaine were also found. Tests are ongoing on them.
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11:34 He says that €3,460 in cash, three mobile phones - 2 Samsung and an iPhone - were found as well as documents. Police then conducted a search at Agius's Mellieħa residence from where two laptops, four hard drives, mobile phones, Vodafone starter packs and top up cards were elevated.
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11:33 Pawney says that a packet containing a brown substance and other packets were thrown from the car. The duty magistrate appointed an expert for chemical analysis of the substances. Fingerprint experts were also appointed.
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11:30 The inspector says that Adrian Agius was arrested in Baħrija. He had gone to the scene and presented a copy of the arrest warrant for Agius. Agius was driving a Seat Leon. A number of items of interest were found in the car.
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11:29 Pawney says he was given instructions by his superiors about the arrest of the accused in relation to the murder of Carmel Chircop.
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11:28 We continue with witnesses. Inspector Shawn Pawney takes the stand.
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11:27 The court dictates a note. “The court has been made aware by its deputy registrar that while this sitting was suspended, Jason Azzopardi informed her, after requesting a copy of the decree on the right to cross-examination by the parte civile, that if she quotes this note in the 5th year in an exam, he would fail her. The registrar is a law student. The court deplores this action by Jason Azzopardi. The registrar is taken to be the long arm of the court and this note will be brought to the attention of the Commission for the Administration of Justice. It notes that this behaviour by Azzopardi continued after the court had warned him to behave appropriately.”
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11:25 We’re back inside. The magistrate emerges and the sitting starts.
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10:47 We will be back shortly.
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10:46 The sitting is suspended for a 20-minute break.
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10:46 Bugeja says he was aware that Robert Agius had been arraigned in court from the news. Responding to question from the defence lawyer, Bugeja adds that he had no idea what or who used the garage.
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10:45 Abela asks when the police had spoken to him. “Last week,” he replies.
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10:45 The prosecution has finished questioning the witness. Lawyer Alfred Abela begins his cross-examination.
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10:41 Arnaud asks him whether he knows what happened to the garage for the past two years. “I gave him the keys and that's it,” he replies. At the end of the lease he had picked up the keys from Robert Agius.
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10:40 The garage is on the 3rd floor of the complex, he says. Arnaud shows him a photo of the garages and asks him to mark the garage and sign the photo. Garage 28 is highlighted by the witness.
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10:38 Bugeja says that the garage was used for two years. The keys and remote key fob were passed on to Robert Agius, some three or four hours after receiving them, he says. The witness tells the court he saw Robert Agius put a car inside it that same day.
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10:37 Bugeja says he rented the garage not for himself but because Robert Agius had asked him to. Agius wanted to put a car inside it. Bugeja says he had an obligation to Robert - the €96,000 debt. Bugeja says he had spoken to the husband of Giovann's daughter to rent the garage for €700 a year. Robert paid him twice.
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10:35 The garage belonged to “Giovann tas-Soap and Sponge”, the witness says. Giovann is John Camilleri who was murdered in a car bomb in October 2016. The witness says that Giovann was dead at the time he rented the garage.
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10:33 Arnaud hands the witness a document. It is about a garage in Mosta. Arnaud asks why the witness had rented it. “For Robert,” Bugeja replies, indicating the accused in the courtroom.
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10:31 One of the accused leans forward to speak to his lawyer, Alfred Abela.
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10:30 It depended on his financial situation at the time. “Sometimes a lot and sometimes nothing… I always paid in cash,” he says.
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10:30 Arnaud: “How much and how frequently would you pay Robert?”
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10:29 The witness says the total debt he had with Robert Agius was around €96,000. “It is almost paid off in full,” he adds.
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10:28 Bugeja: “Magħtab [garages]”
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10:28 Magistrate: “Where?”
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10:28 The court asks him when he had done the trailer business with Robert Agius. “Soon after I took over that place…”
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10:27 Bugeja says he had debts with the Italian supplier but these were almost paid off. “I have debt with Maksar too,” he adds. He had got two trailers in 1996…”
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10:26 Bugeja: “Robert had three garages in Magħtab and I would rent them out from him to store detergents for around 10 years… I went bankrupt after my garage in Magħtab was robbed. I had filed a police report. I would buy from the Italian on credit. My assistant would also steal from me. I ended up penniless.”
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10:23 Arnaud takes over questioning.
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10:23 The witness says that he would store detergents from Pozzallo in the garage.
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10:19 The magistrate repeats the exercise. He points out Robert Agius and explains that they had met on the Malta-Sicily catamaran. He says something about a garage in Qormi used as a store by someone with a shop. “George is his name. If I see him, I will recognise him.”
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10:18 Bugeja: “I don't know.”
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10:17 The court orders everyone to take off their masks. “Which one is Robert Agius?”
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10:17 He is asked to identify the man in court. He points to lawyer Rene Darmanin.
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10:16 He has property rented “from Maksar”, “Robert Maksar”, the witness says.
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10:16 He is asked what he used to do. “Bring detergents from Sicily, for three years and before that I worked at the Snooker hall,” the witness says.
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10:15 AG lawyer George Camilleri asks him what he does. “Nothing,” he replies.
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10:14 John Bugeja from Naxxar takes the stand. The witness is very hard of hearing. He is also assisted by lawyer Marc Sant.
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10:12 Further cross-examination is suspended. The witness leaves the courtroom.
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10:12 The first time he met Jamie was 10 months ago, when he went to the depot to recognise him. The prosecution asks how long before that occasion had the meeting at the bar taken place. “It must've been eight or nine months before,” the witness says.
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10:10 The prosecution is trying to establish the timeline of events and trying to find out whether the Jamie approach happened before or after Yorgen Fenech's arrest.
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10:10 The witness is asked about the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. He says that the Degorgios and Muscat were arrested. He then says “Ta' Tumas was arrested”.
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10:09 The witness is asked about his awareness of the case. He says that he is aware that “Ċensu (Vince Muscat)” is in prison over the murder of a lawyer.
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10:06 Asking him simple questions about how the conversation went, Arnaud looks at his stopwatch and tells the man that three minutes had passed. Was that longer than the conversation, he asks. The witness says the conversation lasted about three minutes.
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10:00 Arnaud re-examines the witness.
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10:00 “Further cross-examination is reserved,” says the lawyer.
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09:59 Abela: “So, in a crowded tea shop you recognised him but not at the depot.”
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09:59 Witness: “I told the magistrate that it wasn't them. I didn't recognise anyone.”
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09:59 Abela suggests that the man had identified two men who looked like this Jamie that approached him.
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09:58 The witness says he wasn't paying attention to the distance.
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09:58 The witness says the man was around the distance between him and the magistrate. Abela suggests that the distance is much shorter. “Do you want the precise distance?” the witness replies.
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09:57 The lawyer adds: “But when Magistrate Neville Camilleri organised the identification parade you didn't recognise him.”
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09:56 “Yes,” the witness replies.
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09:55 Defence lawyer Alfred Abela says that three weeks ago the witness went to the police GHQ and there was the inquiring magistrate. The witness confirms. He didn't recognise the man who spoke to him there. “Did the magistrate send you out and call you in and then you didn't recognise him?”
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09:54 On the second occasion, the Jamie guy had stood around 3ft away. “I told him right away that Muscat's wife didn't want to accept the offer and then went on my way… the conversation lasted maybe three minutes,” the witness says.
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09:52 The witness says they spoke for between five and 10 minutes. He explains that this Jamie had spoken to him twice. “He came back for the reply,” the witness says. He had been sitting at the same bar when the man returned.
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09:51 Abela asks whether it was normal for the witness to go outside and speak to people. The witness replies: “It was during the day. I was not afraid.”
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09:50 The witness describes the approach. “The man sat down next to him and had asked to speak to him outside. The inside was noisy” he says.
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09:49 Defence lawyer Alfred Abela cross-examines the witness.
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09:49 The witness continues that the second time this person spoke to him was around four or five weeks later. He had been frequenting the bar almost every day, for 50 years, long before the approach was made, the witness tells the court. “Nothing of the sort had ever happened before,” he says.
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09:45 The witness says the person spoke to him in the morning around 11am.
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09:45 The magistrate allows the questioning to continue.
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09:44 “In any proceedings instituted by the Executive Police ex officio, it shall be lawful for the police and for the party injured to engage an advocate or a legal procurator to assist them; such advocate or legal procurator may examine or cross-examine witnesses, produce evidence or make, in support of the charge, any other submission which the court may consider admissible.”
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09:41 The court, after seeing Section 410 of the Criminal Code, and having heard the parte civile, the prosecution and the defence make their submissions as to whether the parte civile has a right to cross-examine a witness, and therefore pose direct questions to a prosecution witness, says:
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09:40 Lawyer Alfred Abela says that the article of the law does not speak of the parte civile. “A legal farce,” he says.
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09:37 “This insults the intelligence of every one who studied 5th year law,” Azzopardi continues. “It is basic and elementary that when a witness is not produced by a party the other part conducts a cross-examination. The witness was produced by the prosecution,” he says.
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09:36 Azzopardi: “Not true. Absolutely not true.”
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09:36 Defence lawyer William Cuschieri, appearing for George Degiorgio, also says that it is a “procedural absurdity” that the AG produces a witness and he is cross-examined by the parte civile. “It never happens,” Cuschieri says, insisting that cross-examination is “for the defence and defence only”.
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09:34 Defence lawyer Alfred Abela, who is representing the Agius brothers, submits that the witness is a prosecution witness and in this case the parte civile is working together with the prosecution. The cross-examination is limited only to the defence, he says.
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09:34 Azzopardi says he is exercising his right to make a cross-examination of the prosecution witness. Lawyer Vince Galea, representing the Chircop family as parte civile, joins Azzopardi's request and makes it his own, too.
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09:33 The lawyer asks if the witness is familiar with a certain street, but this is shot down by the defence, as it is a direct question. The court agrees.
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09:32 Witness: “Yes.”
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09:32 Lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who is representing the Caruana Galizia family, takes over questioning. “Are you from Marsa?”
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09:31 The witness does not recall, but says that “we weren't wearing masks at the time”. It was around summer going on to winter, he says. The witness says he had been spoken to by Jamie around two or three months before speaking to the police about the incident.
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09:30 Arnaud: “When Robert and Jamie spoke to you, what time of year was it?”
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09:29 Arnaud takes over questioning.
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09:29 The witness says that he hadn't recognised anyone at the police depot when he was called in to identify Jamie at an identification parade. “I only saw him once and didn't look him over,” he says.
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09:28 The witness, whose name cannot be mentioned on court order, is talking about the hush money offered to the family of Vince Muscat.
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09:27 Witness: “I had told him that the family wouldn't want to accept, probably.”
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09:26 “The police. It's common sense,” replies the witness, but adds that this was not explicitly said.
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09:26 The court asks the witness “not to mention Jamie to who?”
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09:25 The proposal was to pass on some money, suggests Camilleri. The proposal was to give the family €750 each not to mention Jamie.
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09:23 “This Jamie was around 5'8, 5'7',” the witness continues. The witness indicates that Jamie was taller than him. He describes him as having a crew cut hairstyle and dark hair.
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09:22 Lawyer Alfred Abela interrupts, objecting to AG lawyer George Camilleri's submission that “we know how tall he is”. “We know nothing,” he says.
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09:21 QUICK REMINDER: A MaltaToday story last year had revealed how the Agius brothers had offered the family of Vince Muscat hush money not to spill the beans on their criminal activity. Muscat had been talking to the police and had also asked for a presidential pardon on the Caruana Galizia murder case, which was twice denied.
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09:19 Asked to describe this person called Jamie, the witness says that he was red-faced (ruxxan) and in his 30s. The witness cannot recall the description of the other person, Robert, who was with Jamie.
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09:18 The conversation happened around September-October 2020. This Jamie had called him over from across the road.
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09:17 The subject of the conversation was Vince Muscat. The man, whose name cannot be revealed on court order, is related to Muscat through marriage. He tells the court that a certain Jamie told him to tell Vince Muscat not to mention him. “We are ready to give his [Vince Muscat’s] wife €1,500 per month,” the man identified as Jamie had told the witness.
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09:14 The witness tells the court that he had been called in for questioning over a “certain Jamie”. He tells the court that he was in a bar in Marsa when Jamie came next to him. His face was new. And sat down next to him, asking if he could talk to him about something.
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09:13 After hearing the witness's request, the defence’s objections and the prosecution and parte civile not objecting to the request, the court decrees that for the purposes of safety of the persons to be mentioned in the testimony, bans the publication of the name of the witness and the people he will be testifying about. He will be referred to as the man from Marsa.
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09:10 Lawyer Marc Sant asks that names mentioned by the next witness not be mentioned in the press. The defence lawyers object.
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09:08 The parties reserve the right to cross-examine him at a later stage.
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09:07 Arnaud is explaining various documents and aerial photos of properties involved in the case. He has finished testifying.
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09:07 Vella's mobile phone and Adrian Agius's mobile phone connected to the Bidnija cell tower at the time of Caruana Galizia's murder. Agius had told the police that he frequently passed from Bidnija because at the time he lived in Mġarr.
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09:05 Arnaud tells the court that Vella told police he was at his farmhouse at the time the murder took place. He had told police that his contact at the time was with George Degiorgio, not the others. He would go to the potato shed but had reduced his contact as they “weren't his type”.
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09:04 Arnaud tells the court that Jamie Vella had been spoken to over the Caruana Galizia murder and had denied everything. But from his statement he had said that he spent time living in Santa Venera. Arnaud refers to his testimony from yesterday when he recounted how Vince Muscat had said that they went to an apartment in Santa Venera used by Adrian Agius.
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09:02 Arnaud presents similar audio-visual statements taken from Adrian Agius in the months after Caruana Galizia was murdered.
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09:00 QUICK REMINDER: Jamie Vella, and two other suspects today in court – Robert and Adrian Agius – had been among a group of 10 people originally arrested in December 2017 in connection with Caruana Galizia’s murder. Three of the 10 men – George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat – were eventually charged with the journalist’s murder. The rest, including Vella and the Agius brothers, were released with no charges brought against them.
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08:58 Arnaud also presents a copy of the audio-visual statements by murder suspect Jamie Vella when he was first spoken to on 6 December 2017 over the Caruana Galizia bombing and again on 11 January 2018.
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08:54 Lawyer Vince Galea, who is representing parte civile the family of slain lawyer Carmel Chircop, complains that he has not been given a copy. The court says it will provide one for him itself.
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08:53 Superintendent Keith Arnaud is going to continue with his evidence. He takes the stand and presents documents to the court - speaking notes he had used during his testimony yesterday.
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08:52 Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo emerges from chambers and the sitting begins.
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08:44 Lawyer Marc Sant, who represents Vince Muscat, il-Koħħu, is present. This could indicate that Muscat will testify today. Muscat was given a presidential pardon to tell all on the Carmel Chircop murder case. He also cut a plea bargain deal on the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder, for which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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08:37 We are waiting inside Hall 22 for proceedings to start.
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08:37 Good morning.
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Matthew Agius was Senior Reporter on Law and Court Affairs at MaltaToday from 2014 to 2024...
