A jury made up of five men and four women will decide the fate of George and Alfred Degiorgio, who stand accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The nine-person jury was selected on Friday morning by prosecutors and defence lawyers out of a panel made up of dozens of candidates, on the first day of the Degiorgio brothers’ trial.
Potential jurors filed into court one-by-one and were quizzed about their profession and personal circumstances as part of the selection process.
Many were also asked whether they were active on social media.
Maltese juries are traditionally made up of nine members and three substitute members, although the judge in the Degiorgio trial, judge Edwina Grima, opted to nominate five substitutes on Friday.
Substitutes will sit in on the trial but will only be asked to deliberate if any of the original nine jury members is forced to drop out.
Those five substitute members are composed of four men and one women.
Jurors must be aged at least 21 and have clean criminal and financial records to qualify for jury nomination.
They may also be exempted from serving due to extenuating circumstances, and Friday’s selection process presented a number of such instances.
One woman was allowed to go home because she has just had a baby; another was exempted because he is a public official; a third was let off the hook due to a particular medical condition.
Two nominated jurors were nowhere to be seen when their names were called: the court ordered that each be fined €500 for contempt of court.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers also objected to a number of nominated jurors, who were therefore disqualified from serving.
Under local law, lawyers from either side can file up to three such objections each.
Once selected, jury members are escorted to their homes by a court official.
There, they must pack a bag of clothes and personal belongings before being taken to a hotel room, paid for by the state, which will serve as their home for the duration of the trial.
Jurors are not allowed to browse the internet, read or watch local news or interact with family or friends until the trial is over and they have reached a verdict.