The continued detention of George and Alfred Degiorgio is justified, said the court of criminal appeal when turning down a recent request for bail by the two alleged hitmen awaiting trial for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Last week the court heard the men’s lawyer argue that the accused had been in preventive custody for 50 months since their arrest in December 2017 and that the 30-month limit since the issue of the bill of indictment had lapsed. 

However, Deputy Attorney General Philip Galea Farrugia rebutted that the 30-month term had been suspended when the case went back and forth between the criminal court and the court of appeal. 

'Other people are probably involved'

Moreover, “it is probable that other people were involved” in the murder, the prosecuting lawyer had told the court. 

The court of appeal has now decreed upon the Degiorgios’ request observing that the right to bail was bound by certain factors which varied from case to case.

The court had to consider the nature of the offence, as well as assess the various fears in terms of law, weighing all considerations in light of the “sacrosanct” principle of presumption of innocence and society’s right to ensure that the accused was granted a fair hearing.

One of the judgments delivered by the ECHR and cited by the applicants’ lawyer had declared that ten months of preventive detention were excessive. 

But that was a case of fraud and thus different from the case at hand, observed the court. 

'Possibility of public disorder outweighs other interests'

The concerns expressed by the AG in objecting to bail were not frivolous but, in light of ECHR jurisprudence, could be classified as giving rise to a reasonable suspicion which sufficed to prolong the applicants’ detention, observed the court, presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti and Mr Justices Joseph R Micallef and Giovanni Grixti.

When balancing the interests of the accused against those of society, the possibility of public disorder still weighed heavily against all other interests, thus justifying the denial of bail, concluded the court. 

Lawyer William Cuschieri assisted the applicants. Lawyer Jason Azzopardi represented the victim’s family.