Updated 2.30pm
Yorgen Fenech returned to court on Wednesday as the compilation of evidence against him in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder trial continued.
The three-hour sitting was dominated by legal arguments over procedural issues and bad-tempered bickering between lawyers for the defence, prosecution and victim's family.
Fenech's defence team argued that the attorney general's office had intentionally hampered their client's case by sending case notes back to the magistrate just as an application they had filed was being reassigned to a different judge.
Deputy attorney general Philip Galea Farrugia dismissed that claim and accused the defence team of trying to "put on a show" for the media.
Having heard submissions from both sides, magistrate Rachel Montebello said she saw no evidence that the attorney general's office had done so with any premeditation in mind.
That ruling prompted Fenech's lawyers to request a reference to the constitutional court, with lawyer Charles Mercieca saying his client's right to a fair trial was being breached.
It is the second time that Fenech's lawyers have sought such a reference. Their first attempt was refused by the court last September.
Magistrate Montebello said she would rule on that request next week, on Tuesday November 17, and deferred the case until then.
Fenech, a business tycoon from one of Malta's wealthiest families, stands accused of complicity in the journalist's October 2017 murder. He is pleading not guilty to that and other related charges.
The accused has told police that Keith Schembri, who served as chief of staff at the office of the prime minister under Joseph Muscat, was behind the murder and paid €85,000 to self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma for the hit.
Theuma named Schembri as a co-conspirator in a handwritten note which police found at Fenech's property, but he has also singled out Fenech as the murder mastermind.
As it happened
Live blog ends
1.52pm This live blog will end here. Thank you for having joined us. We will return on Tuesday November 17, when the case resumes.
A morass of legalese
1.45pm The day's court session ends with little tangible progress - the sitting was taken up with legal arguments over procedural issues, with an hour-long interlude as court officials tried to track down a court registrar - and case paperwork - to testify.
No witnesses today
1.39pm The court asks whether anyone is due to testify today.
Inspector Zahra says yes.
But that won't happen, as the court must now decide on the constitutional reference Fenech's legal team have requested first.
The court case is deferred to Tuesday, November 17 at 11am.
Timing of testimonies
1.34pm Fenech's defence team would like the evidence they are after to be presented during the time of this referral [usually around six weeks].
Galea Farrugia notes that it is police, not the attorney general, who decide when witnesses will testify. He says Europol experts are due to testify, and the attorney general will have to consider whether other witnesses Fenech has asked for can be summoned during this period too.
The court gives him until Tuesday to reply to this.
Snide comments
1.27pm The bad tempers continue to roil. Charles Mercieca makes a loud remark as prosecutors speak, and is told off by the magistrate - "some basic respect," she tells him.
And when it's Mercieca's turn to speak, he is interrupted by comments from Azzopardi, representing the victim's family.
"I will stop until the parte civile brings itself into line," he says.
Magistrate Montebello is fed up with the repeated bickering "in the court's face".
Deputy AG slams defence's 'frivolous' application
1.20pm The deputy attorney general says the defence's request for a constitutional reference is "frivolous and vexatious".
Defence lawyers tell the court that recordings and other evidence must be preserved. The court turns to prosecutors and asks whether there are any objections to that.
Deputy attorney general Galea Farrugia says it is also in their interest for all evidence to be preserved. "But all in due course," he adds.
Kurt Zahra replaces Keith Arnaud
1.14pm Inspector Keith Arnaud takes his leave as his colleague Kurt Zahra enters to take his place.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Marion Camilleri tells the court that the defence team will be filing some brief submissions to explain their reasoning behind their constitutional request.
Magistrate Montebello gives them until November 17 to file their note.
Defence team seeks constitutional grievance
1.07pm Fenech's defence team is not happy with that ruling. Mercieca tells the court that they would like to register a constitutional grievance as their client's right to a fair hearing has been breached.
Answering a question from magistrate Montebello, Mercieca says that the defence team will not be asking for proceedings to be halted until that matter is decided.
Magistrate: "Please make your request through a written note. Any submissions will not be included in the court minutes. We end up with a book each time..."
Magistrate draws a line
1.02pm Magistrate Montebello says she has listened to submissions from both sides and announces her decree.
The court received the records on November 3, she notes. It is not for the court to investigate who filed the request and when. It does not appear that the attorney general “knew” of the accused’s request when he sent the records back to the court. The court will not read any further intention into the attorney general's actions.
In a nutshell - the decision goes the attorney general's way.
'Più di così!'
12.53pm Deputy attorney general seizes on this point. The defence has accused prosecutors of dragging its feet. And yet it has acknowledged that the magistrate received his referral within 20 minutes of the judge's decree.
"Più di così [you can't ask for more]..." he says.
Cue more bickering between the various legal teams.
Fenech brought back in
12.46pm Just as the witness walked out, defence lawyer Charles Mercieca stands up and says he'd like to ask her a question.
Fenech is brought back to the witness stand.
Mercieca asks to see the paper acknowledging receipt of the notes sent from the attorney general's office. He's handed a sheet of paper and asks Fenech whether a signature on it is hers.
"No, that's of the court official who signed for the papers when they were received at the magistrate's chambers," she explains.
Mercieca is satisfied with that, and notes for the record that the defence received a decree from judge Scerri Herrera (noting her recusal) at 12.40pm that day [20 minutes before the notes were filed].
Wrong date blamed on oversight
12.42pm Fenech says the act was delivered on November 3 but that the person who received it marked it as having been filed one day prior - November 2 - due to an "oversight".
She says the records sent back to the attorney general's office are noted in the appropriate register and were also filed on November 3. There were two boxes containing 10 volumes, and they were sent to the magistrate's chamber at 1pm that day.
That's all from Fenech.
Registrar's assistant in court
12.39pm The criminal courts' registrar has not been found. In her stead is her assistant, Maria Dolores Fenech, who is now in the courtroom with a file in her hand.
She says Fenech's application was filed on November 3. There is no indication of what time the application was filed.
Meanwhile, Fenech's family have returned to follow proceedings.
Yorgen Fenech returns, as his family exits
12.35pm It's been more than an hour since the sitting was suspended. Yorgen Fenech has just been brought back to the courtroom. Minutes earlier, his wife and others accompanying her exited.
The missing registrar
12pm It's been 30 minutes since the magistrate suspended the sitting until the criminal courts' registrar could be found and brought to testify. But there's no sign of her yet - the case remains suspended.
While you wait
11.44am It's been a busy 24 hours for police investigators: yesterday evening they hauled in former minister Konrad Mizzi for questioning and detained him overnight. Investigators wanted to know more about conversations the former energy minister had with Yorgen Fenech, who is a shareholder of the Electrogas power station consortium.
And at around 7am this morning, police knocked on Keith Schembri's door and took him for questioning.
Waiting for the registrar
11.35am Lawyer Charles Mercieca asks for the registrar of the criminal courts to testify about the referral procedure issue he spoke about earlier. The court upholds that request and suspends the sitting until the registrar is brought to the courtroom to testify.
Yorgen Fenech is escorted out of the courtroom through a door at the back of the hall while the registrar is found and brought to the witness stand.
'No more bickering'
11.33am Deputy attorney general Philip Galea Farrugia tells the court that Fenech’s defence team is trying to put on a show for the media.
Magistrate Montebello appears irked. She says she will not allow herself to be used as a “springboard for the media” and is fed up of hearing of judicial acts through the media, rather than directly.
She says she will no longer assess judicial acts she gets to know of through the media.
“No more bickering between you two,” she tells the two sides as she thumps on the bench for emphasis.
Charles Mercieca's procedural points
11.25am Charles Mercieca, representing Yorgen Fenech, raises some "procedural" points about the application his side filed yesterday.
The application concerns the case's referral process [rinviju] - essentially the way in which a case goes back and forth between the court and attorney general's office.
Mercieca says that judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera had abstained from ruling on an application the defence team filed, seeking to return Melvin Theuma and Fenech's business associate Johann Cremona to the witness stand. By the time the case was reassigned to judge Aaron Bugeja, the attorney general had already sent the case files back to the magistrate. That meant the defence's request for Theuma and Cremona's testimonies was defeated.
Mercieca says their client is now stuck, as he wants to present his evidence now but is unable to do so.
"Why has the attorney general not presented all evidence after one year? Why is he blocking the accused from presenting his evidence?" he asks.
Jason Azzopardi tries to get a word in, but is cut off by Mercieca. The magistrate agrees with the defence lawyer - parte civile lawyers have no say in this procedural issue, she rules.
Urgent applications
11.13am It appears Fenech's legal team filed an urgent application yesterday. The attorney general's office filed its reply to that application this morning, but the reply is not yet in the records of the case.
Who are the lawyers?
11.09am Two of Fenech's lawyers, Charles Mercieca and Marion Camilleri, are in court today. The third, Gianluca Caruana Curran, is not. We have been told he is in COVID-19 quarantine.
Deputy attorney general Philip Galea Farrugia and inspector Keith Arnaud are prosecuting.
Jason Azzopardi is representing the Caruana Galizia family today. Their other lawyer, Therese Comodini Cachia, is not present.
Yorgen Fenech in court
11.04am The accused is in the courtroom - hall 22 - under tight security. His wife is also present. We've also spotted two of Daphne Caruana Galizia's sons, Matthew and Paul, as well as her three sisters.
Hall 22 at the Valletta law courts, which is usually used for trials by jury. Photo: Matthew MirabelliMagistrate allows parte civile questions
11am Yorgen Fenech's defence team had previously asked the court to forbid questions about statements their client gave to police before his request for a presidential pardon was refused.
But the magistrate, Rachel Montebello, does not accede to that: she says witnesses (inspectors Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra, as well as former commissioner Cutajar) are to testify about everything Fenech said about the Caruana Galizia murder, and that lawyers for the Caruana Galizia family can ask questions about that.
What happened in previous sittings?
10.55am In a hearing held on October 21, Fenech's defence team alleged that Melvin Theuma had "bought" his presidential pardon for €17,000 with the consent of former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar.
Cutajar is himself under investigation for having secretly met with a friend of Theuma's, Edwin Brincat known as il-Ġojja, without informing the murder case's lead investigators.
In other hearings held in October, lawyers argued over data obtained from Yorgen Fenech's electronic devices and prosecutors cross-examined statements made by various witnesses, albeit behind closed doors.
Welcome
10.53am Good morning and welcome to this live blog. We're at the Valletta law courts, where the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia is to resume.