One of the men accused of being involved in the car bomb which murdered Daphne Caruana Galizia filed a judicial protest against the police commissioner on Wednesday for failing to ensure that all evidence be gathered for investigative purposes.

In the judicial act, presented before the First Hall, Civil Court on behalf of Alfred Degiorgio, il-Fulu, reference was made to an application filed by inspector Keith Arnaud, lead prosecutor in the compilation of evidence against the Degiorgio brothers and Vincent Muscat, il-Kohhu, back in October 2017.

The relatives of the Caruana Galizia family were not to be allowed to “dictate what evidence was to be gathered”

On that occasion, Inspector Arnaud claimed that the relatives of the assassinated journalist were denying investigators access to the laptop and back-up server which contained a wealth of information regarding her most recent work.

The applicant pointed out that such sensitive information was “indispensable to the investigation” possibly shedding light upon third parties who might have been involved in the crime.

However, six months down the line, that application had not been decreed by the magistrate and the police commissioner had “done nothing in that regard” the court was told.

In Wednesday's judicial protest, it was argued that such inaction on the part of the commissioner to gather all evidence “deemed essential” for the discovery of who was truly responsible for the murder, needed to be remedied.

The relatives of the Caruana Galizia family were not to be allowed to “dictate what evidence was to be gathered,” nor were they to be allowed to withhold such essential evidence from investigators rather than handing them over for the “necessary analysis.”

Mr Degiorgio called upon the police commissioner to “find, retrieve, analyse and produce as evidence” this material, failing which he reserved the right to take further legal measures.

The judicial protest was signed by lawyer William Cuschieri.