The three men accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia are back in court this morning, as the compilation of evidence against them continues. 

The court hearing has now ended. See how things unfolded with our by-the-minute updates below, or have a read of our summary.

 

12.55pm The accused are led out of the courtroom and will now be taken back to Corradino Correctional Facility.  Thank you for following this live blog.

12.50pm And on that note, the magistrate brings the session to a close. The next hearing will take place on Thursday, February 15 at 9.30am - despite Martin Fenech's objections. 

Magistrate Stafrace Zammit goes ahead and books the subsequent hearing too, pencilling it in for February 22. 

12.45pm Jason Azzopardi, who is appearing on the bereaved family's behalf, steps up to the plate and says the defence's claims about the attorney general's "quasi judicial" role hold no water. 

Martin Fenech pushes back, and the two men are now arguing over legal niceties. The magistrate listens in and takes note. 

READ: From prison leaks to visitation rights, suspects unhappy with life in prison

12.35pm With that issue set aside, Dr Cuschieri highlights another concern defence lawyers have - that attorney general representative Philip Galea Farrugia should not be helping the prosecution at the compilation of evidence stage. 

The law is clear about the attorney general's role, Dr Cuschieri says. 

Defence lawyer Martin Fenech agrees. The attorney general has a quasi-judicial role and should be acting as a watchdog over prosecuting officers, not in court prosecuting. 

Dr Galea Farrugia sits this one out and says he has nothing to add. 

12.31pm The magistrate weighs in. Discrimination cannot be allowed, she says, but defence lawyers have to prove this. 

If the room being provided to the men is very small and contains three guards, there may be a problem. But seeing as she has no information about the room's size, she cannot comment. 

As for visitation times, the magistrate says she will not comment on the director of prisons' decisions, provided they are taken within the parameters of the law. 

Lawyer William Cuschieri protests - "are they not presumed innocent until proven guilty?" - and the magistrate says she'll mull things over. 

12.29pm Philip Galea Farrugia from the Attorney General's office says he can't see what the problem is. 

The only difference between the suspects' visitation rights and those of other inmates, he says, is that they have been set a 5.30pm time rather than the 4pm slot generally assigned. 

Visitation times are set at the prison director's discretion and the suspects are allowed visits as frequently as any other inmate, he says. 

12.26pm  Alfred Degiorgio's other lawyer, Martha Muscat, drives the point home. 

"He can't even speak to his wife, because there are three guards surrounding him," she says. 

12.21pm The hearing resumes, with the court now going through requests made last week - the first concerning visitation rights. 

Defence lawyers had complained that their clients were being given different visitation rights than those of other inmates. 

They just want to be treated like other inmates, lawyer William Cuschieri tells the court. 

12.16pm It's a busy morning in the law courts. In another courtroom, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca took the witness stand, in a case in which victims of the 2015 Paqpaqli crash are seeking damages. 

The President said she played no part in organising the event, saying a "third party" was in charge and that her role as chairperson was non-executive.  

The hearing is still going on, but you can read more about the President's testimony here.

12.05pm Didn't catch today's hearing from the start? Here's what's happened so far: 

• Defence lawyers have complained that somebody in prison is leaking information about Vincent Muscat to the press
  
  
• A man testified that he sold his boat, the Maya, to George Degiorgio for €30,000 cash in February of last year. A Transport Malta representative subsequently told the court that Alfred, not George, was registered as its owner.
  
  
• A panel beater explained how the keys to Ms Caruana Galizia's leased Peugeot, which needed repairs, had been posted in a letterbox two doors down from his last September. He had contacted the letterbox owner, retrieved the keys and got to work fixing the car. 
  
  
• A police sergeant who responded to the emergency call on October 16 told the court that he saw what looked like two men arguing further up the road, though he couldn't make out who they were. 
  In an earlier hearing, Inspector Kurt Zahra had told the court that Ms Caruana Galizia's son Matthew was involved in a scuffle with a man who had allegedly stopped to take photos of the bomb scene.  

12pm As everyone waits for the hearing to resume, Alfred Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat have a chat, while George Degiorgio is engrossed in conversation with his lawyers. 

11.52am Magistrate Stafrace Zammit calls a 10 minute recess. 

11.50am More police officers who were at the scene of the crime are testifying. 

11.47am Further up the road, the sergeant says, he could make out two men arguing. He had no idea what the argument was about and could not make out who the men were, as the road slopes in a way that made it difficult to see from his vantage point, he says.

11.43am Police sergeant Juan Mula takes the witness stand. Sergeant Mula was previously a Rapid Intervention Unit officer but now serves in the police's counter-terrorism unit. 

Mr Mula was one of the first officers at the murder scene in Bidnija. 

He recalls how he was called at around 3pm on October 16 and told a car was on fire in Bidnija. Within minutes, he received a second phone call telling him that it was a bomb. 

A fire engine was already on site by the time he got there, and three areas were still on fire - the spot where the bomb exploded, an area in the field close by and the car itself.

"The blaze was so strong that you could not even approach it let alone try and offer any sort of help," he tells the court.

11.39am The following Monday, Mr Pace had gotten in touch with the garage owner whose letterbox it was, got the car keys off of him and started working on the car that afternoon. 

Repairs were done by Tuesday, and Mr Fenech from Percius picked the car up on Saturday. 

Mr Pace explains that he keeps all car keys inside his garage, which only he has access to. 

Defence lawyer Martin Fenech asks him if he recognises any of the accused. No, replies Mr Pace.  Mr Pace is done testifying. 

11.35am Jesmond Pace takes the witness stand. Mr Pace is a panel beater in Mrieħel, and he was the man tasked with repairing Ms Caruana Galizia's leased Peugeot 108 last September. 

Mr Pace tells the court David Fenech from Percius car hire [the company Ms Caruana Galizia leased the car from] had called him up to tell him he'd be bringing him a car to fix and would leave him the car keys in his letterbox. But Mr Fenech had inadvertently posted the keys in the wrong letterbox, two doors down.  

The blaze was so strong that you could not even approach it let alone try and offer any sort of help.- Sergeant Juan Mula

11.30am Another Transport Malta employee, Michael Savona, takes the witness stand. Alfred Degiorgio is listed as the registered owner of the Maya, he tells the court. George Degiorgio was registered as the owner of another vessel.

Just to recap -the Maya's former owner has just testified this morning that he sold the boat to George Degiorgio, though Alfred was present when the deal was struck. 

11.28am Ms Debono is asked to list the registration numbers of the cars owned by the three suspects, and duly obliges. 

11.27am Next to testify - Karen Debono from Transport Malta.

11.25am George's brother Alfred was also present for the sale, Mr Formosa says. He recognises the two brothers, who sit calmly in court. 

11.21am Mr Degiorgio paid €30,000 for the boat in February 2017, forking out a €10,000 deposit and the €20,000 balance on February 16. 

The two men sealed the deal at the Msida marina, with Mr Degiorgio paying in cash. The Maya was sent for some repairs, and then transferred to Marsa. 

Mr Formosa presents copies of all the paperwork to the court.  

11.18am Mrs Ellul steps down, with none of us the wiser as to why she was asked to testify.  Next up is Ivan Formosa, who sold the pleasure boat Maya to George Degiorgio. 

11.14am Mrs Fava is done testifying. The next witness is Nadine Ellul, who tells the court that she had a SIM card which she used between 2014 and 2015 but then stopped using.  

11.13am Take out your phone and look for Alfred Degiorgio's number, Inspector Zahra tells Mrs Fava.  She does so, and identifies Mr Degiorgio for the court. 

11.10am Mr Fava steps down, with his wife Gloria Fava the next person to take the stand. 

She confirms what her husband Carmelo testified - that Mr Degiorgio was their last tenant and that he would pay in cash. 

11.07am Carmelo Fava is the first person to take the witness stand. Mr Fava is Alfred Degiorgio's landlord. He tells the court that Mr Degiorgio has been his tenant since August 2017, paying him €800 a month in cash for the St Paul's Bay flat. 

Mr Fava explains that it was his wife who dealt with Mr Degiorgio when it came to payments.

11.05am  The accused were told they were under arrest, Inspector Zahra replies. As part of that process, the shed had to be investigated and sealed off by police. 

The magistrate is happy to accede to the Inspector's request, and moves proceedings on. 

11am Inspector Kurt Zahra asks for an inventory list of all the items found inside the Marsa potato shed where the three accused were arrested.

But Dr Fenech objects to this request - the police search was illegal because there was no search warrant, he says. 

10.56am About that complaint of leaks from prison: magistrate Stafrace Zammit pointed out that leaks to the media are hardly unique to this case, and that there's little she can do about them. Nevertheless, she ordered Dr Fenech's request to be referred to the director of prisons. 

10.54am A bit of legalese going on at the moment - lawyers are discussing requests made during the previous sitting and making copies of documents. 

10.45am Dr Fenech asks the court to order the director of prisons to investigate leaks about his client Vincent Muscat to the media. 

The prosecution does not object to this request.  

10.43am Defence lawyer Martin Fenech is the first to speak. He says information about the three accused men is being leaked to the media from inside prison. 

10.40am The three accused are being brought in. Lawyers and Ms Caruana Galizia's family are already in the courtroom. 

Not sure who's who? Have a read of our guide to the case at the bottom of this article. 

10.25am Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit will continue to hear what evidence police have amassed against Alfred Degiorgio, George Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat. 

The case is due to begin at around 10.30am. We will be posted live updates as events unfold in the courtroom. 

What we know so far:

Ms Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb blast on October 16, close to her home in Bidnija.

In December, police arrested 10 men in connection with her murder. 

Three of those - Degiorgio brother Alfred and George, and Vincent Muscat - were charged with her murder. The others were released on police bail without charge. 

After a couple of false starts, the compilation of evidence got underway with magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit presiding. 

So far, she has heard how police: 

• Used the FBI's help to home in on suspicious phone numbers. One was linked to a remote-controlled device and went active at 2am in Bidnija on the day of Ms Caruana Galzia's murder. It received an SMS at the time the bomb went off and immediately went off-radar.
  
  
• Believe that the phone which sent the bomb detonation SMS was an old Nokia 105. Police found several Nokia 105 phones at the Marsa shed they arrested the suspects at. 
  
  

READ: Who was Daphne Caruana Galizia?

• Triangulated cell tower data to work out that the killer SMS was sent from out at sea. George Degiorgio was seen going fishing on that day, and shortly after the bomb went off texted his partner "buy me wine, my love." 
  
  
• Received reports of a suspicious car regularly parked by tat-Tarġa Battery - an ideal vantage point for the killers - in the days leading to the murder. The car was subsequently never seen there again.
  
  
• Found a "fresh-looking" cigarette butt with Alfred Degiorgio's DNA on it under a tree at the tat-Tarġa vantage point.

The key courtroom players:

Martin Fenech is appearing for Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, 55 and from Msida.
William Cuschieri and Martha Muscat are appearing for Alfred Degiorgio, known as il-Fulu, 53, and from St Paul's Bay.
Josette Sultana is appearing for Alfred's brother George Degiorgio, known as iċ-Ċiniz 55, and also from St Paul's Bay.

Philip Galea Farrugia from the attorney general's office and inspectors Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra are appearing for the prosecution. 

Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia are appearing parte civile.