Updated 4.30pm

One of the Degiorgio brothers accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia ended a hunger strike on Friday, more than 48 hours after starting it.

It is yet unclear whether Alfred Degiorgio, known as il-fulu, ended his strike after reaching some form of agreement with the prison authorities.

The strike kicked off after the prison director ordered that Mr Degiorgio and his brother George be locked in their cells for 25-hour stretches to avoid conflict with another inmate. 

Mr Degiorgio had requested that either he or the other inmate be transferred to another prison division. Authorities at Corradino Correctional Facility refused the request. 

Sources said prisoner David Norbert Schembri, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his partner in 2004 by stabbing her 49 times, injured Alfred’s brother George with a coffee flask in August last year, causing him to suffer burns.

Last May he was convicted of slashing a prisoner in the eye at Corradino.

Mr Degiorgio’s lawyer William Cuschieri told MaltaToday that after the coffee flask incident, a group of other inmates had beaten up Mr Schembri.

The prison director then ordered that Alfred and George Degiorgio be kept locked in whenever Mr Schembri was out of his cell, and vice versa.

This was an unacceptable situation, the lawyer said.

The Home Affairs Ministry told Times of Malta on Friday morning that Mr Degiorgio was being closely observed by the prison doctors.