Maksar trial: Daphne murder witness describes panic, a scream and an explosion

Updated 3.00pm

A man who witnessed a bomb go off inside Daphne Caruana Galizia’s car first-hand has recalled seeing her “panicked” behind the wheel and screaming before the bomb went off.

Francis Sant was driving from Mosta to Bidnija on October 16, 2017 when Caruana Galizia was assassinated.

He was testifying about the incident before a panel of jurors hearing the case against two men accused of supplying the bomb used in that murder.

Four men are being tried in the case over two separate murders – the journalist’s and that of lawyer Carmel Chircop, who was shot in 2015.

Brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, better known as Ta’ Maksar, along with associates Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio will have their fates decided by a nine-person jury made up of six men and three women, in a trial that is set to hear several high-profile witnesses, including an ex-minister.

The accused face up to life in prison if found guilty.

In emotional testimony on Saturday, day three of the trial, Sant recalled how he noticed something “suspicious” about a car coming towards him that day, which had slowed down and gone off onto the side of the road.

He said the woman behind the wheel, who he did not recognise at the time, seemed panicked.

“There was a sort of spark below the car... you know when they have fireworks, there’s a little spark, a couple of seconds... I saw that the woman was conscious of what was happening around her.

“Then she screamed, which I heard from my car, I had my windows open. And as soon as she screamed, there was an explosion. There was fire along the road, the car took off, came towards me and went from the road into the field. This was about 10 feet from where I was,” Sant recalled.

He also said that the car’s fuel tank ended near him.

Prosecutor Godwin Cini asked the witness what he did then.

Sant said he froze with both hands on the steering wheel.

“I froze at the steering wheel when I saw her panicking,” Sant added.

The witness was under shock. A few seconds later, a woman came by driving a car with her child inside.

“I told the woman, “a car bomb exploded and there was a woman inside. Call the police, call the police,’” Sant recalled.

At that point, Caruana Galizia’s son Matthew showed up. The family lived a short distance away.

Sant, who said he saw the Caruana Galizia family every day, said he did not recognise Matthew Caruana Galizia at the time, shocked as he was.

“I was panicked and asked him ‘Do you know to whom that car belongs to?’ Today I would like to apologise, I would not have asked had I recognised him. But my brain stopped working and I only realised it was Matthew [Caruana Galizia] when I saw him standing next to the car and understood it was his mother I had seen earlier then,” Sant said.

He recalled a policeman approaching him and he told him there were people inside.

“There were human parts on the ground. Butchered and blackened,” Sant recalled.

The witness said that there were body parts along the road and that he stopped cars from driving over them until the police and scene of crime officers arrived.

A 'suspicious' car

Carmel Wallace Sammut took the witness stand on Saturday morning. The man lives in Ta’ Tarġa gap close to where the hitmen kept a lookout from a vantage point overlooking the journalist's home in Bidnija.

He recalled that at the end of August 2017, he noticed a silver Peugeot car which was unusual.

“There was no hunting at the time. It was out of place. The area is not really inhabited, except for us,” Sammut said.

The car was parked on the country road close to where the Scouts camping is, about 100m from his residence.

The first car was a “big” silver Peugeot 407, which according to the witness was not leased.

Some time later, he saw a white leased car with a “DQZ” number plate, and the man became “suspicious”.

“At the time, I had just fractured my leg and I was bed bound,” the man said when asked how many times had he spotted the suspicious cars parked outside.

On the day Caruana Galizia was killed, he saw the white car in the morning, then at around 12pm, and at 3pm he heard the explosion.

“We saw first responders and police cars in Bidnija valley. The white car left and from that day we never saw it again,” Sammut told the court.

Prosecutor Godwin Cini asked the witness how frequent did he see the “suspicious” car.

“Before October 2017, I saw it several times. But it was parked there at random times not at a specific time. Sometimes it would be there in the morning,” Sammut said, adding that the day of the murder, the car was parked outside their fence.

“Did you ever see the drivers of the two cars?” Cini asked.

“I once saw a man in the white car, parked further away, next to the quarry facing east. The man froze inside the car when he saw me coming. That's when I became suspicious and realised he was not comfortable there,” the witness said, adding that on other occasions he always saw the car empty.

Replying to a question by a juror, the man said he lived alone with his wife in the area. He added that he did not have CCTV. A reserve juror asked about “the carob tree”. The witness explained that there is a carob and almond tree next to a wall that had collapsed and has been fixed since then.

Sammut’s wife, Maria, took the stand next. She explained that since they live alone in the area, when one sees an unfamiliar car parked for a certain amount of time, one becomes suspicious. She explained that usually non-residents drive by to get a view of the Victoria lines and leave. However, they do not hang around.

“The white car was more frequent than the silver one that came before it,” the woman recalled, adding that it was usually parked in particular spots.

The woman saw two men inside the white car once at night, but could not see exactly who was inside.

A juror asked whether she filed a report about the suspicious cars, to which the witness replied "no". The cars were never seen together, for some time they saw the silver car which was replaced by the white car until the day of the explosion.

While these witnesses testified, Yorgen Fenech’s lawyer, Charles Mercieca was spotted walking into the courtroom.

The trial continues later on Saturday.

Madam Justice Edwina Grima is presiding over the trial by jury.

Prosecutors Godwin Cini, Danika Vella and Anthony Vella are prosecuting on behalf of the AG Office.

Lawyer Nicholas Mifsud is assisting Adrian Agius.

Lawyers Ishmael Psaila and Amadeus Cachia are assiting Jamie Vella.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene Darmanin are assisting Robert Agius.

Lawyers Noel Bianco and Leslie Cuschieri are assisting George Degiorgio.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia is assisting the Caruana Galizia family.

Lawyer Vince Galea is assisting the Chircop family.