The three men accused of the car bomb murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have had their second bail request in a matter of days dismissed.
Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat have been held behind bard since a dawn raid on a shed in Marsa on December 4. They were arraigned on December 5 and denied involvement in the October 16 murder.
The latest decision was taken by Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, after an earlier request was been turned down by the Criminal Court presided over by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti who observed that the accused lacked the necessary trustworthiness to ensure that there would abide by their bail conditions.
Barely 24 hours after Mr Justice Grixti's decision, lawyers for the three suspects filed a fresh request for bail before the same criminal court presided over, this time by Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, fending off criticism that their move amounted to “forum shopping.”
While making oral submissions on Monday morning, defence lawyer William Cuschieri argued that the law granted the faculty of filing a fresh request for bail within 24 hours.
“If the law allows me to do so and I am not abusing I don’t have to justify it to anyone. It's not the case that we are forum shopping, but we are saying there are grounds for another application to be filed.”
Dr Cuschieri said that no evidence had been brought forward to justify fears that the three men would not respect any bail conditions imposed on them.
“We are hypothesising about something which might happen in the future. We can’t, a priori, decide that someone will breach their bail conditions,” the lawyer argued.
Moreover, in the compilation of evidence against the three suspects the court the court had heard testimony by more than100 witnesses.
There were no witnesses whom the accused could interfere with, nor any fear of absconding given that the men had family ties in Malta, Dr Cuschieri continued.
He insisted that the gravity of the crime was not enough to justify a prolonged period of pre-trial detention.
“All three have had cases in the past where bail was granted, and they always respected their bail conditions,” he said.
Dr Philip Galea Farrugia, from the AG’s Office, countered that there was one criminal court, the same court which only 24 hours earlier had refused bail, adding that nothing had changed since that decision.
Moreover, although the gravity of the case alone could not justify the denial of bail, this fact had to be taken in context alongside other factors including the possible tampering of evidence and the risk of absconding.
Furthermore, a magisterial inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder was still ongoing, meaning that third parties could be charged. “An inquiry is secret, so we cannot say who we may or may not be charging.”
Dr Cuschieri countered that the case was no different to others before it and that based on the arguments being made, “the three accused, and many others like them” would never be granted bail.
Finally, regarding the fact that a third party might still be charged in relation to the case, Dr Cuschieri said that if that were the case it would be another issue but “so far it has all been about mobile numbers and cell towers”.
Ultimately, he said, the court needed to strike a balance between what was in the public interest and the presumption of innocence.