The court has turned down an unusual request by two men charged with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia to meet MEPs Ana Gomes and David Casa.

The brothers requested the meeting during Thursday's compilation hearing on the murder of the journalist.

Alfred and George Degiorgio, alongside Vincent Muscat, are currently facing proceedings over their alleged involvement in the car bomb that assassinated Ms Caruana Galizia outside her Bidnija home in October 2017.

On Thursday, the Degiorgio brothers sought court authorisation to hold a meeting with the two MEPs in the presence of the foreign press, prompting immediate objections by both the prosecution and parte civile lawyers who voiced diffidence over such an “extraordinary” request which fell beyond the ambit of the judicial process.

Later that same afternoon, the two MEPs reacted to request, issuing a joint statement wherein they said that “politicians have no place negotiating with suspected murderers”.

On Tuesday, the court, presiding over the murder compilation, put paid to the request in its decree on the matter, with magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit turning it down after taking note of the objections by the Attorney General and of the “exceptional” nature of such request, which the defence counsel “failed to support”.