Updated 12.30pm

A senior police officer had overheard lawyer Carmel Chircop in a heated conversation on his mobile days before he was gunned down, a court heard on Tuesday.

Emanuel Scicluna, a sergeant major stationed at the Birkirkara police station at the time of Chircop’s murder in 2015, testified about his chance encounter with the lawyer while on his way to a shopping mall in Sliema on a Saturday morning. 

Scicluna knew Chircop by sight since the lawyer was the president of a band club in the town where the officer spent his working days. On that off-day, Scicluna was out shopping when he spotted Chircop, wearing a white shirt, visibly “very angry” as he spoke on his mobile. 

The lawyer acknowledged the officer’s presence and the two men briefly greeted each other. But as Scicluna walked past Chircop, he heard him say angrily, “when are you going to give me the payments? You’ve been telling me this for a long time.” [Ilek tgħidli dan il-kliem]. 

The following week, days after that encounter, Scicluna heard about the Birkirkara murder and soon confirmed that the victim was the same man he had met at Tigne. He told the investigating inspector all he recalled.

Chircop was found gunned down in his Birkirkara garage, in a murder case that remained stalled until Vincent Muscat agreed to turn state’s witness in exchange for a presidential pardon for his role in the crime. 

Muscat says he was among those sent to kill the lawyer, together with Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio. Adrian Agius, known as one of the Ta’ Maksar brothers, is accused of having ordered the assassination. 

The case also concerns the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was blown up two years after Chircop was killed. 

Vella, together with Adrian Agius’ brother Robert, stand accused of procuring the bomb used to kill Caruana Galizia. Degiorgio is being charged with her murder in a separate court. Muscat is serving 15 years for that crime. 

A court heard testimony on Tuesday from the owner of a car hire and transport business based in St Paul’s Bay.

Jason Camilleri described Robert Agius as a “good” customer who would call for a rented car “some four or five times a year” over the previous five years.

“The only thing that interested him was whether the car was manual or automatic,” said Camilleri, who explained that the first available model would be offered. 

Agius was a “normal client” who would sometimes request a car for his mother or some friend, calling Camilleri to place the order. Once the car was cleaned and prepared by the garage employees, it was left outside the company premises for the customer to collect. The car keys were sometimes collected beforehand.

In previous testimony, the court heard how Agius had supplied the alleged Caruana Galizia hitmen with a Peugeot 108 car identical to that which the journalist was driving at the time she was killed, to allow them to practice picking its locks. 

The garage owner also said that records were kept for six months, but were “shredded” and “completely destroyed” afterwards to safeguard clients’ personal details, such as credit cards numbers.

First responders at Caruana Galizia murder scene

At the end of Tuesday’s almost three-hour long sitting, three officers from the Civil Protection Department testified about a call that came through from the control room on October 16, 2017.

“There’s a car on fire. A likely explosion,” they were told.

Three fire trucks from the Xemxija station were immediately dispatched to the site of the explosion at Bidnija.

A small car, or rather “what was left of its metal frame” was on fire, smoke visible at a distance. As they approached, they could not make out the make of the vehicle, but could tell that it was a Peugeot model from the logo on a set of keys found nearby.

Body parts were strewn across the scene and “part of a leg” lay close to the burning vehicle, one officer recalled. The identity of the victim, visible inside the wreckage “in skeleton form,” was still unknown when the firemen first got there. It was later that they were told that it was Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Two AFM officers from the bomb disposal unit who were among the first responders at Bidnija that afternoon, also testified on Tuesday.

It was clear at first glance that it was a bomb, bombardier Joseph Bondin said, as the car was “blown up” [mifqugha].

Further up the road, some 30 metres away, there was a “crater” where the explosion likely took place, propelling the vehicle ahead into the fields “under its own momentum.” A trail of debris was visible on site, with human parts and car parts strewn across the site.

After checking the area to make sure there was no risk of any remaining explosive, the officers were told to wait until “foreigners” arrived to handle investigations.

Two days after the explosion, AFM personnel scoured the Bidnija area on two consecutive days, along with foreign experts. They received instructions to look out for fragmentation related to bomb components and other scraps of evidence that was handed over to investigators.

Arresting Jamie Vella in December 2017

Inspector Jonathan Cassar headed a team responsible for arresting Jamie Vella and searching his farmhouse back in December 2017.

When police turned up early in the morning at the property on the outskirts of Mosta, the yard was empty and there was no one there.

Later, Vella’s father turned up and allowed the officers inside.

They waited for two hours and Vella finally arrived, driving a car with Robert Agius in the passenger seat.

Officers immediately arrested both, telling them it was in relation to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the inspector testified.

Both men were led to the police depot, while fixed point officers kept watch at the farmhouse until forensic officers arrived to search the place.

But it was a busy day for scene of crime officers and Vella’s farmhouse was not searched that day.

Defence lawyer Alfred Abela asked about that search, pointing out that police had scoured the place, “every inch of soil,” for four whole days and found “not a shred” of anything untoward.

Inspector Cassar said that his role had been limited to the arrest and he had not been officially updated about the search, “although I know that it did take place.”

Both Vella and Agius were subsequently released without charge on that occasion. 

Tuesday’s sitting heard 17 witnesses, mainly police, AFM and CPD officers, who testified about their involvement in the investigations concerning the Chircop and Caruana Galizia murders. 

Among the few civilians testifying today was Raymond Schembri, who runs a car hire business at Ħal Farruġ. Alfred Degiorgio sometimes called at the garage and had once rented a white Hyundai i10 which he had kept until “the 10th of the month,” he testified.

Degiorgio had received a parking ticket at St Paul’s Bay, the owner recalled, but he could not remember the year when this happened. That car had a sticker of the garage on the back windshield. 

The case continues on May 24.

Superintendent Keith Arnaud and attorney general lawyer George Camilleri prosecuted.

Lawyers Alfred Abela, Rene Darmanin and William Cuschieri appeared for the defence.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Vincent Galea represented the victims' families.