The wife of murdered lawyer Carmel Chircop told a jury on Thursday that, together with her son, she had accepted €165,000 in an out-of-court settlement due to the trauma they had been through after her husband was shot dead.

Mary Rose Chircop took the witness stand on Thursday afternoon in a trial by jury against four men accused of having a role in the murder of Carmel Chircop, who was shot dead on October 8, 2015.

Brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, better known as Ta’ Maksar, along with associates Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio, are all facing different charges in connection with Chircop’s murder.

Adrian Agius is accused of commissioning the hit on the lawyer, which prosecutors allege was carried out with the complicity of his brother Robert, along with Vella and Degiorgio.

Robert Agius and George Degiorgio (iċ-Ċiniż) are accused of supplying the bomb in Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

All four men deny the charges.

Mary Rose Chircop told jurors on Thursday that on the day of the murder, she had to pick up three registered letters from the post office. She recalled that her husband had told her to open them and inform him immediately if anything was court-related.

The woman collected the letters, but when she tried to call him, she could not reach him.

She initially thought he had forgotten his mobile phone in the car or was having coffee until she got a phone call from his sister, a nun, who was checking in on him.

The woman recalled that the nun and Carmel always exchanged a message in the morning.

The nun called and asked “where is my brother?” with the witness replying that he had left at about 6.45am.

She asked what happened, and the nun told her to look at Facebook.

The witness went upstairs where their son was, adding that on the day, his early morning lecture had been cancelled, otherwise he would have left with his father.

“Had his lecture not been cancelled a day earlier, both would have been dead,” the woman added.

Once upstairs, she asked her son to open Facebook.

“First we saw an article ‘A man shot dead in Birkirkara’ and then ‘A lawyer shot dead in Birkirkara’,” the witness said, sobbing.

The woman went to the Birkirkara police station and asked for more information, however, the police officer refused to divulge any details before the police inspector came on site.

Her son joined her at the police station, and she was just going to head to the garage complex where her husband kept his car.

The woman sobbed, recalling that an inspector turned up and she “immediately realised what the police inspector was going to say”.

At about 11am, mother and son were asked to go to court to give their testimony in the magisterial inquiry.

 €750,000 constitution of debt

On Thursday, during her testimony, Mary Rose Chircop was shown a contract signed with EROM Limited.

The contract was the constitution of debt of €750,000 signed between Carmel and Mary Rose Chircop and Adrian Agius in his personal capacity.

There was a special hypothec on Agius’ villa to guarantee for him in case of a default.

The couple signed two bills of exchange worth €300,000 each with Ryan Schembri and his wife, Angie, and Etienne Cassar and his wife, Nathalie.

Chircop explained that her husband had told her it was some kind of loan.

She added that when the document was signed, the lawyer appeared before notary Malcolm Mangion, but she was not present.

Her husband then picked her up and told her they were going to sign the constitution of debt at Mangion’s office in Luqa, without the notary present.

She signed the constitution of debt that afternoon. Prosecutor Godwin Cini pressed the witness on details about the document.

Describing the lawyer as a diligent and meticulous person, Chircop said she did not ask him to explain the details in the document. 

She added that €50,000 was paid to Chircop on the day they signed. This was followed by another two payments.

However, that is when the payments stopped.

She recalled that, about a year later, Adrian Agius had either approached Carmel or called him, and offered his villa to set off the amount due. The couple had gone to see the villa in July.

“When we got to Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, there was an unknown man resting against the boundary wall. I asked if it was Adrian, and my husband replied he did not know him.

"We waited for Adrian, rang the bell, but no one opened. My husband thought he was not going to come, so we left. As soon as we got on the Coast Road, Adrian called my husband, apologising that he was caught in traffic. We turned back, and Adrian Agius came along,” she recounted.

The unidentified man left, Chircop continued, adding that after a tour of the villa, they informed Agius that they did not like it.

Some weeks later, they were having coffee in Naxxar when Adrian Agius walked in.

Carmel Chircop spoke to him for some 15 minutes at another table.

Asked if she had overheard anything, the woman said she only heard her husband say: “so you will start paying me again” before they parted ways.

On September 14, 2015, the pair celebrated their anniversary in Venice.

Chircop got a phone call and she overheard him saying “you’ve already skipped two payments”.

The witness did not know if they met when they returned from Venice, adding that the murder was just over three weeks later.

'I feared everyone and everything'

Five months after Chircop was murdered, the witness and her son received a letter from Adrian Agius informing them that he had filed proceedings to annul the constitution of debt.

The pair appeared once before Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima where Agius was accompanied by his then-lawyer, Arthur Azzopardi.

In 2017, Agius called Chircop, telling her that he had a big garage in Naxxar which he was interested in giving to the widow and her son. Agius was offering the garage as set off and for a special hypothec on his property to be extinguished.

The woman informed him that she was not interested in property. After seeking legal advice from her lawyer, Vince Galea, the woman and her son settled for €165,000.

Asked by Cini why they had settled for a total of €315,000, the woman replied “after going through such trauma, I only sought to protect our lives. I feared everyone and everything. I did not think about the money. I made sure to protect our lives.”

“His father did not even see his son graduating [as a lawyer]. You need to first go through it to understand what we have been through. Life is priceless. I know we did not get the full amount, but money was the last thing on my mind,” the woman sobbed.

Threats from business partner

Adrian Agius’ lawyer, Nicholas Mifsud, cross-examined the witness on her testimony in the inquiry where she flagged an issue between Chircop and business partner Jeffrey John Mallia regarding land in Qortin.

Development on the Qortin land was completed after the murder.

Questioned about Mallia’s character, the woman said she initially had the wrong impression and did not think much of him, but later changed her mind.

Mifsud asked her if she was aware of a police report her husband had filed against Mallia. The woman did not recall Chircop reporting Mallia for threats.

MORE supermarkets director says there was no €750k loan by Chircop

Former MORE Supermarkets director Ryan Schembri also took the stand on Thursday.

He explained that in 2014 he was the director of several companies, including EROM Ltd.

The company was set up together with Etienne Cassar and Adrian Agius for the storage of products and stock that were to be distributed to other companies.

The witness said they needed a warehouse because their business was expanding. He recalled that Agius had contacts in real estate, and through his agent, they found a place in Qormi.

They entered into a verbal agreement, and the constitution of debt was part of this agreement.

Chircop had entered into a promise of sale agreement with the Bonnici brothers for the warehouse.

Asked about the constitution of debt, Schembri said negotiations took long, as they sought to sort out issues with the planning authorities and find the financing for the project.

In a few months, EROM started renting out the basement level directly from Bonnici Brothers.

Schembri recalled Chircop saying that if they wanted to make use of the property, he had to be covered, and they entered into the constitution of debt agreement in March 2014.

By September 2014, Schembri had absconded from Malta.

During cross-examination by Mifsud, the witness confirmed there was no €750,000 loan by Chircop.

The defence lawyer pressed the witness on why they had opted for a constitution of debt when Chircop was assigning his rights in the promise of sale to EROM.

Schembri said he did not recall what was the reason for that.

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 assisting Jamie Vella.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and René Darmanin are assisting Robert Agius.

Lawyers Noel Bianco and Leslie Cuschieri are assisting George Degiorgio.

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

Lawyer Vince Galea is assisting the Chircop family.