Daphne Caruana Galizia's alleged murderers were back in court on Wednesday morning as the compilation of evidence against them resumed, with fresh submissions made by the defence lawyers for bail.

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat have been under arrest for seven months, since their arrest on December 4 in the former potato shed in Marsa. They were accused of the car bomb murder a few days later, and pleaded not guilty.

A decision on bail is expected to be announced by the presiding magistrate in the coming days. 

The focus of Wednesday's sitting was on testimony by three Europol experts and four Dutch forensic experts who were assigned to help the local police.

Few fresh details emerged, although it was revealed that one of the accused had filed a Constitutional application saying that his rights had been breached.

Read: Caruana Galizia accused says search warrant was for police and not foreign experts

This is a timeline of Wednesday's events in court:

2.30pm: The case has moved on to the bail submissions. Dr Fenech's argument is that the accused have been held under arrest for around seven months, but that apart from the first sitting, they were never even mentioned in court. 

However, the prosecution argues that these arguments were already brought up a few weeks ago and that nothing had changed since then - meaning that the decision to refuse bail should still stand.

Dr Cuschieri refuses to back down: "There are people out on bail with worse accusations against them. Let's not make the exception the rule.

"They have done nothing wrong while in jail. Had the prosecution showed up and told us they did something while imprisoned that would be a different story but that was not the case."

The magistrate has adjourned the sitting and will deliver her decree on the bail submission from her chambers in the coming days.

2.18pm: Dr Azzopardi intervenes as the defence lawyers protest about the role of the expert: "I think we are getting confused. This is only compilation of evidence. We are here to gather evidence and not decide what is admissible or not. There is a specific stage to decide what is admissible or not and this is not the time."

The defence lawyers are not moved by his argument, saying that her testimony was an 'abuse of the law'. They win, and the expert will not testify.

2.14pm: One of the accused - Vincent Muscat - who has kept his sunglasses on throughout the whole session, asks to be excused for a toilet break.

2.00pm: Dr Fenech and Dr Cuschieri object to the testimony of the last expert from the NFI, the one who had received the exhibits. It seems that - unlike the original four - she was not appointed by the magistrate.

The magistrate once again intervenes to ask how they can object to something when she hasn't even given her testimony. "Let's see what she has to say first and then we'll see," she said.

The expert confirms that one of her colleagues contacted her at around 5.30pm on October 16, saying that the Maltese authorities had requested assistance. She got a formal request via the Dutch government at 8.42pm that same day. A few days later, on the 19th, two police from Malta handed over some samples from the crime scene.

Ms Caruana Galizia's phone was handed over on October 21 and subsequently returned via DHL.

1.28pm: Gruesome details emerge of what the forensic experts found. The expert on the stand is the one who was responsible for getting the body out of the car. He said that the body of the victim was so severely burnt that it was not possible to carry out tests for explosives.

The right leg was on the side of the road, however, and since it was not so badly  burnt they managed to take some explosive residue samples.

The whole area was thoroughly searched, but in particular the areas offering access to the site where the car was parked. Samples were also removed from the crater caused by the blast, on their second day here.

One of the things they were checking was that the explosive residues were the same across all the sites.

The expert confirmed that the bomb had been placed under the driver's seat and that the car showed signs of the explosion having been inside it, as the frame of the car bulged outwards.

1.11pm: Four experts from the Netherlands Forensic Institute are taking the stand, and at the moment are explaining their sphere of expertise. They are also explaining how they came to be appointed to the case.

The police asked for assistance at around 5pm on October 16, just two hours after the murder. As a preliminary, the police were advised to preserve the crime scene as much as possible by cordoning off the area, and were told to ensure that no remains were touched. Once that was out of the way, the experts contacted colleagues to verify that the request had been made through the proper channels. One expert arrived in Malta the next day, October 17, with the rest arriving on a later flight.

They were appointed by magistrate Anthony Vella, assigned to work alongside the Dutch Europol team, the police forensic experts and the Army's explosive division. They drew up an investigation plan with the Malta police, dividing the area of the murder up into a grid.

As they worked, any items that had DNA on them and personal belongings were flagged, while smaller unidentified objects were collected in separate evidence bags. All the evidence was handed over to the police, they confirmed.

12.55pm: One of the cards with evidence was corrupted and the defence is insisting that Europol should not be involved in extracting the data. The magistrate is not at all impressed, asking them why they are insinuating that Europol are not acting independently...

They have agreed that the next sittings will be on July 17 and 19 - with none in August so far. Not a word about the bail so far! However, more people are coming into the court. It is not over yet.

Now criminologist Savior Formosa has presented a 3D model of the car in which the slain blogger had been killed.

12.37pm: In the meantime, it emerged that Alfred Degiorgio had on Monday filed another Constitutional application, arguing that his rights were violated. One of the points made is that the search warrant was issued to the police and the foreign experts were therefore not authorised to be there at the time.

12.15pm: If you are wondering what is going on, the list of exhibits is being read out and identified. 17B87003, for example. Some people in the courtroom are trying hard to remain interested as the list drones on. A hard drive was presented on which all the images and data were saved.

11.45am: Was there or was there not a search warrant? That is the question now that the session has resumed. Dr Fenech insists that some of the exhibits presented on Wednesday were lifted without the accused being present and without a search warrant. Inspector Arnaud insists that this was not the case, and that in one instance, George Degiorgio's wife was there.

Dr Fenech repeats that there was no search warrant. Not surprisingly, Inspector Arnaud repeats that there was.

They are now listing each search and identifying who was at each one.

11.06am: There is a lot of evidence being presented by the experts and they are not really sure what to do with it all, at first. But the solution is presented: black garbage bags, at least for now. The court gives a 10-minute break and the accused leave the hall.

11.01am: Is that a touch of sarcasm? Dr Fenech wanted to know who took the exhibits to the Netherlands, and asks what qualifications he had. The expert asks drily whether the lawyer wanted to know about his university degree. He declines to give further details, saying Europol would vouch for him.

The expert also told Dr Fenech that they had been present at various locations during the different searches.

10:23am: They will now testify about the work that they did individually so one stays at the witness stand, while other two are asked to move outside. The experts are trying to figure out the practicalities of how to present the evidence.

A fourth person, a colleague of the experts, is outside the court, and inspector Arnaud asks that he be allowed to help them with regards to handling the exhibits, which the magistrate accepts.

The court is being presented with a report listing all the exhibits that they worked on.

10.10am: The expert confirms that their assignment in Malta was for a limited time. The role was to extract data, as well as to analyse data that had not yet been examined by the local authorities.

The evidence was split into three categories: the evidence that had already been examined (which stayed here in Malta), the second were items that they deemed to be irrelevant, such as pieces of paper, while the third were exhibits that they did not have time to examine properly which were taken back to Europol with them.

The forensic registry actually hand delivered the last category of evidence to them on March 12. They were then able to continue their work overseas, returning to Malta on July 2.

Once back here, they rounded up all the evidence from the first category, which had been left in Malta, and checked that all the seals were in place. On July 3, they once again divided everything between them.

10.01am: And finally things are moving. The Europol digital forensics experts will only talk jointly about the work they did as a group. They confirm that they were appointed to the case, and then travelled to Malta on December 3. The following day, they launched straight in, helping the local CID with house searches, and the collection of evidence. The emphasis was on digital evidence, they explained.

They were given evidence in sealed envelopes, which they then checked and logged.

9:55am: And round and round it goes: Dr Fenech asks Dr Azzopardi to quote what procedure justifies them testifying together, while the magistrate - showing signs of irritation - challenges Dr Fenech to say which procedure would ban them from doing so.

The prosecution tries to find a solution: Philip Galea Farrugia from the attorney general's office proposes that they would testify alone on the work they did individually but together when they worked on the same report, as is the normal practice. Inspector Arnaud suggests they would each declare to the court what they worked on alone, and walk out when the others are testifying to work they did on their own.

9:42am: The Europol investigators are the first to take the witness stand and the first dispute has already arisen. Defence lawyer Martin Fenech asked that the three of them should testify separately as otherwise they would know what questions to expect - which he said went against procedures. But inspector Keith Arnaud is arguing that they wrote the report together.

This is not the first time that a similar situation has arisen and the magistrate is asking why they did not object the previous time.

Dr Fenech's claim that this went against procedure was challenged by Jason Azzopardi, who insisted that whenever experts were nominated to work together, they always testify together, as was the case when the FBI experts took the stand and as was the case with other experts...

The whole thing is just going backwards and forwards at the moment.

9:37am: The family of the murdered journalist is all here. The suspects have just been brought in.

9.27am: The inspectors have walked into court carrying large bags - presumably evidence.

Read: Caruana Galizia had no chance of surviving bomb, expert says during tense sitting

Read: 'A spark, and then a second explosion' - Caruana Galizia murder suspects in court

Event timeline

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 - brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat - were charged with her murder. The others were released without charge.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit is presiding over the compilation of evidence.

So far, she has heard how:

• The bomb - between 300gr and 400gr of TNT - was an improvised explosive device clearly intended to kill the journalist. It was planted inside the car.

• A laptop taken by investigators from Ms Caruana Galizia's residence shows the last data dated back to December 2015. She was using another laptop when she was killed.

• 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 Galizia's murder. It received an SMS at the time the bomb went off and immediately went off-radar.

• They 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 where they arrested the suspects.

• Police 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."

• They received reports of a suspicious car regularly parked by tat-Tarġa Battery - an ideal vantage point for the killers - in the weeks leading to the murder. The car was subsequently never seen there again.

• Last June, a judge ruled that Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta should not be involved in the murder probe.

Who's in the courtroom?

Martin Fenech is appearing for Vincent Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, 55.

William Cuschieri and Martha Muscat are appearing for Alfred Degiorgio, known as il-Fulu, 53.

Josette Sultana is appearing for Alfred's brother George Degiorgio, known as iċ-Ċiniz, 55.

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.