Updated 5.54pm with further informaton on third bomb

When Vince Muscat il-Koħħu told police about the bomb used to murder Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigators were worried. 

Muscat said the suppliers had obtained three bombs. One had maimed Romeo Bone in an explosion at Msida Circus in February 2017. A second killed Caruana Galizia in October of that year. But where was the third device? 

Police officers got their answer in May 2018, when Kevin Ellul, known as “id-Double O”, opened the door of his Għargħur farmhouse. A blast went off, but Ellul was not hurt. Forensic experts determined the bomb was of the same category as the other two. 

That piece of information emerged in court on Friday morning during evidence given by Police Inspector Kurt Zahra, who was testifying in the trial by jury of four men accused of two murders.

Robert Agius and Jamie Vella are accused of supplying the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia while the pair, along with Adrian Agius and George Degiorgio are accused of being involved in killing lawyer Carmel Chircop. They deny the charges. 

The case against them moved ahead after Muscat il-Koħħu agreed to turn state’s witness in exchange for a presidential pardon in the Chircop case and a 15-year jail sentence for his role in assassinating Caruana Galizia. 

'Advanced warning of raid'

Muscat started speaking to police in April 2018, Zahra said, roughly five months after he was arrested in a high-profile raid of a Marsa potato shed. Muscat has since testified that he and others were given advance warning of the raid “two or three weeks” before it took place.

Apart from the Marsa raid, police had also made arrests in other localities that day. In total, they arrested 10 people. Among them were the Agius brothers, known as Ta’ Maksar, and Jamie Vella. 

Those three would only face criminal charges years later, after Muscat agreed to provide information to the police. 

Zahra said Muscat began opening up to officers in 2018 and in 2019, saying he wanted a pardon in exchange for information about “several crimes”, some of which predated 2017. 

Police Inspector Kurt Zahra emerging from court in 2019. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

He also told an inquiring magistrate that the Degiorgio brothers told him that a certain “David Gatt” had commissioned them to assassinate Caruana Galizia in around 2014 or 2015, on the instructions of then-minister Chris Cardona. 

Muscat said Alfred Degiorgio was due to meet Cardona at Portomaso, but the plan was abandoned before the meeting took place. 

A lawyer for one of the defendants, Jamie Vella, has indicated that he intends to summon Gatt and Cardona to testify in the ongoing case.

Muscat told officers that when the hitmen were again hired to kill Caruana Galizia some years later, this time through self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma, the original plan was to shoot her using rifles.

But George Degiorgio was not keen on that idea and they switched plans to using a bomb to kill her. 

Muscat told police that Robert Agius and Jamie Vella had procured three bombs. When it came to the Caruana Galizia hit, George Degiorgio had expressed concern that the bomb was “like Bone’s”, Muscat said. 

Romeo Bone was blown up at Msida Circus in February 2017, but the explosion had not killed him. 

Under cross-examination Zahra described both Bone and Vella (id-Double O) as "notorious" figures. Ellul, who spent a month in hospital with his injuries,  exercised his right to silence when questioned by Zahra.

Asked if that was because Ellul's evidence could incriminate him, Zahra said he was "not sure". Asked if he was ever questioned on Caruana Galizia's murder or treated as a suspect, Ellul said: "I am not aware that he was a suspect in the Caruana Galizia murder, but I cannot exclude". 

Zahra’s testimony on Friday morning also recounted the years-long road it took for investigators to secure evidence leading to criminal charges against those allegedly involved in the murder. 

He spoke about being one of the first at the Bidnija murder scene and officers finding cigarette butts close by that matched with the DNA of one of the hitmen, and how police started investigating self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma when they realised that Mario Degiorgio, a brother of Alfred and George, was receiving money from Theuma on a weekly basis. 

The site of the bomb has since become a memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia. File photo: Times of Malta

Police eventually arrested Theuma on illegal betting charges in November 2019, while he was inside a car. There was an ice cream box on the passenger seat containing a photo of Theuma with then-OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, three USB drives and a phone with the name ‘Jorgen’.

That Smiles icecream box contained secretly recorded conversations between Theuma and Yorgen Fenech, who now awaits trial over allegations he was the mastermind of the murder. 

Later, under cross examination, Zahra said that the word "Maksar", a reference to Robert and Adrian Agius' nickname, was heard in the secret recordings Theuma made of his conversations with Yorgen Fenech. He clarified that Adrian Agius is not indicted over the Caruana Galizia murder. 

Lawyer Rene Darmanin, for Robert Agius, asked the inspector if police had compared the declarations of the two key witnesses - go-between Theuma and hitman Muscat. 

Zahra said "many things lined up" including the price for the hit and meetings at the Busy Bee cafe in Msida where details of the assassination were discussed before hand. 

Darmanin pressed Zahra on "inconsistencies" but the witness said he would worry if something was said that was "absolute" because that would raise questions about whether their version had been curated.

“Everything needs to be taken in a context. Vince Muscat is a disaster when it comes to dates,” Zahra said, adding that Muscat is relatively old and gets confused about dates and months. 

He was also questioned about the alleged aborted plan to assassinate Caruana Galizia in 2014 or 2015. "This was investigated and several people were questioned," Zahra said, adding, "We haven't got anywhere".

Asked about the Caruana Galizia inquiry, Zahra says a part of it is still open. There is a proces verbal (report) which is closed and other investigations every time someone is arraigned. 

Cachia asks him about a statement in 2020 when the Commissioner reportedly said “the investigation into Caruana Galizia’s murder is closed”. 

Zahra said: “I am not the commissioner’s spokesperson or his parrot, if anything he should testify about it. And that statement is incorrect.”

He added: “I don’t agree with that statement,” 

A Times of Malta report from a 2021 conference records how the police commissioner said: “With the evidence we have, we are in a position to say that every person involved, be it mastermind or accomplice, is under arrest or facing charges". However he stopped short of saying that the police now consider the case closed.

The case continues. 

Madam Justice Edwina Grima is presiding over proceedings. 

The prosecution is being led by Attorney General lawyers Godwin Cini, Danika Vella and Anthony Vella. Jamie Vella is being assisted by lawyers Ishmael Psaila and Amadeus Cachia. Robert Agius is being assisted by lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene Darmanin. Adrian Agius is being represented by lawyer Nicholas Mifsud. George Degiorgio is being assisted by lawyers Noel Bianco and Leslie Cuschieri.

The Caruana Galizia family is represented by lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia. The Chircop family is represented by lawyer Vincent Galea.