Updated 11.45am
Witnesses of the Bidnija explosion that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia on Wednesday recalled the carnage they saw at the scene where the journalist was blown up in October 2017.
Bidnija residents, firefighters and a police constable recounted seeing a Peugeot 108 blown up to pieces, body parts and the journalist’s anguished son at the scene of the murder.
“The car was totally exploded. No glass. Nothing. No windscreen. Sploduta [blown up],” firefighter Massimo Cassar told a court.
Witnesses included Bidnija local Frans Sant, who told a different court in February about the blood-curling “piercing scream” he heard as Caruana Galizia’s fire went up in flames.
Testifying on Wednesday, Sant recalled seeing many different colours – “blue, green, yellow, grey” – as the car blew up.
“There was a first spark under the car, like a firework. She panicked even more. Then the car suddenly exploded. That second explosion blew everything up. I went cold,” he said.
Mosta residents who lived in houses overlooking the Bidnija valley where the Caruana Galizia family lived recalled noticing a suspicious-looking white car parked there in the weeks before the explosion.
After that fateful day, they never saw the vehicle again, they said.
The witnesses were testifying in the compilation of evidence against Ta’ Maksar brother Robert and Adrian Agius, Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio. The four men face charges related to Caruana Galizia’s murder as well as the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, who was shot dead in October 2015.
Robert Agius and Vella stand accused of supplying the bomb used to blow up Caruana Galizia. Degiorgio is being charged in separate proceedings with having committed that murder together with two others.
Adrian Agius stands accused of having ordered Chircop’s murder. Vella and Degiorgio are alleged to have carried it out.
The court also heard from the man who previously owned the Maya, a boat which prosecutors say George Degiorgio was aboard when he sent the text message that detonated the bomb.
Ivan Formosa said that while he negotiated the sale with George Degiorgio, it was the other brother, Alfred Degiorgio, who came with him to Transport Malta to register the boat.
Murder inquiries closed for four accused men
A lawyer from the attorney general’s office told the court at the end of Wednesday’s session that magisterial inquiries into the two separate murders were now considered closed.
Lawyers involved in the case subsequently told Times of Malta that the inquiries had only been closed with respect to the four men in the dock on Wednesday, not in their entirety.
The AG lawyer told the court that police commissioner Angelo Gafá had filed a note on May 6 to that effect for the Caruana Galizia murder.
That May 6 note came just one day after the inquiry was reassigned away from the magistrate in charge of it, Neville Camilleri, following his promotion to judge.
Gafá had also filed a similar note for the Chircop murder in the last week of April this year.
But in both the Caruana Galizia and Chircop cases, acts of the inquiry concerning the four accused men have not yet reached the attorney general’s office, the court was told.
The case continues on May 17.
Correction May 12: Amended to correct date of next hearing to May 17.
As it happened
Live blog ends
11am The magistrate asks the media to leave the room. The court hearing is over.
Thank you for having joined us for this live blog, we will have a summary of the session’s key points of testimony available at the top of this article soon.
Case resumes on May 17
10.54am No more witnesses will testify today. The case will continue on May 17.
Smoke rising from the scene
10.49am Bidnija resident Mario Vella testifies.
Vella owns a farmhouse next to the hill where the explosion happened, along the road.
He was at an ironmonger in Mosta when his daughter called him to tell him she had heard an explosion and could see smoke rising near the farmhouse.
Vella headed there and saw Frans Sant [who testified earlier today]. Sant told him that somebody was in the car but there was no hope.
He says he looked in the car, saw a person inside, and agreed.
Vella then recounts something he has already testified about – his altercation with Matthew Caruana Galizia, who believed he [Vella] had taken photos of the scene using his mobile phone.
He says the incident did not amount to much.
A brand new rental car
10.39am Mario Fenech, a manager at Percius car hire, is the next witness.
[Fenech had testified in 2018 in the case against the three men accused of placing and detonating the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia].
He tells the court that Caruana Galizia had had the Peugeot for around three months when she was killed. She had another rental car before that, for a further three months.
“It was a brand new car. We bought it new because she had a five-year contract. Before that we had given her another car, same model,” he says.
Percius director Alexander Fenech testifies.
He says that Peter Caruana Galizia [Daphne’s husband] had contacted him in early 2017 about leasing a car for his wife.
They gave her a Peugeot and then got her a brand-new model in June.
'Of course we suspected something'
10.34am The woman, whose surname is Sammut Grech, tells the court that she had spotted a small, white rental Peugeot car in the area for several weeks before Caruana Galizia’s murder.
But after that day, she never saw it again.
“We used to see the car in various spots. Of course we suspected something. We would wonder ‘what are they doing here?’”
The police spoke to her a few days after the murder, she says.
Case resumes
10.29am The magistrate is back in court and the case can resume. A woman who lives in a house overlooking the Bidnija valley is the next witness.
15-minute recess
10.01am The magistate calls a 15-minute break. She walks out as the accused are escorted out under tight security.
A suspicious car overlooking the valley
10am Mosta resident Wallace Sammut lives in a house overlooking the Bidnija valley. He had spotted a suspicious car parked close to his house.
He testifies: “It had a QQZ number plate. I had seen there for several weeks, on and off. Sometimes parked next to a quarry, sometimes close to my gate. Once I saw a person. But the car was parked and I couldn’t tell who it was, as I drove past.”
“On that day, I saw it there at around noon. When I heard the explosion at 3pm, I went outside and the car was not there.”
Sammut is asked what made him suspicious.
“It was a rental vehicle. And it’s only hunters who come along there, during open hunting season.”
'I went home in shock'
9.54am Sant says that at that point, he stopped his car and got out. He saw body parts around, and told a woman who stopped as she was driving past to call emergency services.
Then Matthew Caruana Galizia came, “almost run right into the fire.”
“That’s when it clicked,” Sant tells the court. “That’s when I realised it was Mrs Caruana Galizia.”
Sant recalls seeing a kaleidoscope of colours when the car exploded: “I saw all sorts. Blue, green, yellow, grey.”
He spoke to the police at the scene and recalls a gaggle of journalists all asking about what he had seen.
Sant says he then went home, “in a state of shock.”
The man who saw the explosion as it happened
9.48am The next witness is Francis Sant, a Bidnija resident who drove past Caruana Galizia just as her car caught fire.
[Sant testified in February in the case against Yorgen Fenech, who stands accused of complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder].
As in February, he recalls the “piercing scream” he heard.
“It was a small white car. I was around 20 metres away. The driver was panicked. It all happened within seconds.
“There was a first spark under the car, like a firework. She panicked even more. Then the car suddenly exploded. That second explosion blew everything up. I went cold.
“She was still conscious after that first explosion. I heard her scream. I saw her come straight at me. The car went past me, into the field. I saw it all. She ended up in pieces.”
Cuschieri's objections
9.41am Lawyer William Cuschieri (representing Degiorgio) joins proceedings. He’s asked whether he agrees with fellow defence lawyer Abela’s position concerning hearing witnesses who have already testified to the inquiry.
Cuschieri says he does. Not only that – he says he’s considering filing a constitutional reference about it. Cuschieri lists his gripes:
“It’s going to mean the trial is not held within a reasonable time and besides, there’s the issue of pre-trial publicity, with the media keeping up their bombardment. And there’s the way charges were issued in this case, with the merging of two unrelated cases.”
Abela pipes in.
"It's nothing personal," he tells the attorney general's side.
'George bought the boat, Alfred registered it'
9.33am Formosa says Degiorgio took it for a test drive on February 3, and the two men agreed on a sale the following day.
Degiorgio first gave him €10,000 for it, then €20,000.
Formosa: “The deal was with George, but it was Alfred who came with me to Transport Malta to register the vessel. It made no difference to me.”
Testifying about Degiorgio's boat
9.27am The next witness is Ivan Formosa. He steps up, papers in hand.
He is asked why he was summoned.
“I guess it’s because of the Wellcraft Maya boat,” he says. "I owned it for eight years. On February 2, 2017, George Degiorgio came to see it."
'Car was a bubble'
9.23am Another fireman, Harry Edison, testifies. He describes the blazing car as a “bubble” and recalls seeing body parts.
He’s followed on the witness stand by Frederick Sammut, who recounts a similar scene.
Sammut says he saw a police officer and two men in a heated exchange [most likely Matthew Caruana Galizia and a man he suspected had taken video of the scene].
Sammut ran to the car, but it was clear that nothing could be done. He confirmed that there was only one person inside.
Defence irked by repeated testimony
9.17am Defence lawyer Alfred Abela has an objection: these testimonies have already been recorded in the magisterial inquiry, he says.
“Why are we wasting these sitting with testimonies already preserved in the records of the case?”
Magistrate Farrugia Frendo agrees and notes that she had already pointed this out yesterday. Records of the inquiry have not yet been presented in court, she says.
One of the attorney general’s lawyers says that they’re doing this to safeguard the judicial process.
Abela minutes a note: that the defence will only reserve the right to cross-examine witnesses whose testimony is already in the inquiry records.
Carmel Chircop and Daphne Caruana Galizia: the four men in the dock face charges related to both their murders.Left speechless
9.09am Firefighter Massimo Cassar testifies. He was also stationed in Xemxija at the time.
Cassar recalls seeing the car and patches of grass in the field on fire. He first put out the grass fires, then moved to the car.
He is asked what he saw. Cassar is momentarily speechless.
“Ħeqq...[Umm…]” he says.
He eventually finds the words.
"There was a person inside. The car was totally exploded. No glass. Nothing. No windscreen. Sploduta [blown up]," he says.
Constable recalls explosion
9.03am Police constable Charles Azzopardi Refalo is the next witness. He was stationed in Mosta at the time of Caruana Galizia’s murder.
A call came in at around 2.55pm requesting police asssistance. They headed to Bidnija and found a car on fire with parts strewn around. A man – Matthew Caruana Galizia, the victim’s son – told them that his mother was in the car.
Azzopardi Refalo recalls looking down and spotting a human hand. He asked Matthew to move back, he says.
“We realised it was an explosion because the roof of the small car had been pushed up,” he tells the court.
High-ranking officers showed up at the scene, and a neighbour of the Caruana Galizia's did too.
Checking leaves for remains
8.59am Grech and his colleague looked for any other victims and scoured the area around the car.
Police reached the scene and there were civilians around, too. Grech says the car was a Peugeot 108.
They returned to the scene three days later, he recalls, to chop down a tree: forensics experts wanted to check its foliage for any remains.
'It was clear this was an explosion'
8.55am Firefighter Arthur Grech is the next witness. He was stationed at the CPD Xemxija station in October 2017, when Caruana Galizia was killed.
He tells the court that a call came through to the control room at 3pm on the day of the murder, reporting a car explosion and fire in a Bidnija field.
Grech headed there in a fire truck with a colleague. They found the station officer on site.
He describes the scene.
“It was only once the flames were out that I realised there was a person inside, between the seat and car door,” he says. “It was clear this was an explosion.”
Transcripts presented as evidence
8.52am Lawyer Veronica Ann Spiteri testifies.
She presents copies of transcripts of statements released by all four accused – there are eight transcripts in total, as well as CDs of those recorded statements.
Copies will be made available to the defence lawyers, prosecution and parte civile within the week.
Court in session
8.46am The magistrate’s deputy registrar has asked armed guards to escort the accused to the dock.
They are duly brought in and take their seats.
The magistrate enters the hall, and the court hearing can begin.
What happened last time?
8.39am The court was last in session yesterday [Tuesday], when it heard:
• An eyewitness recount how he found Chircop lying in a garage doorway, shot dead.
• Details of a €750,000 debt that Chircop was owed by one of the accused, Adrian Agius, together with More Supermarkets owners Ryan Schembri and his partner Etienne Cassar. The deal included a hypothec over a villa in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.
Read our full report of Tuesday's court session.
Who's who
8.33am Here are some of the key courtroom players.
Robert Agius, Adrian Agius, Jamie Vella, and George Degiorgio face various charges related to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Carmel Chircop. They are the four facing charges and are all pleading not guilty.
Vincent Muscat has admitted his role in both murders and has turned state witness.
Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo is presiding over the case.
Anthony Vella and George Camilleri are representing the Attorney General
Superintendent Keith Arnaud and inspectors Shawn Pawney and Wayne Camilleri are prosecuting.
William Cuschieri is appearing for George Degiorgio.
Vince Galea and Alan Zerafa are appearing for the Chircop family.
Alfred Abela is representing the Agius brothers.
Marc Sant is representing Vincent Muscat.
Jason Azzopardi is the lawyer for the Caruana Galizia family.
Welcome
8.30am Good morning and welcome to this live blog. We’re at the Valletta law courts for the second court session in as many days in this complex case.
The case will be heard in hall 22.