Former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar's mobile phone data was requested by police investigators last year, a court heard on Monday.  

Cutajar is the subject of an ongoing police investigation into communication he had with Edwin Brincat, a close associate of Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middlemen in the 2017 assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Last year, Times of Malta had exposed how Cutajar had held secret meetings with Brincat, possibly jeopardising the murder investigation.  

Known as il-Ġojja, Brincat is believed to have first convinced the murder middleman to begin recording his conversations with Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of commissioning the murder of the 53-year-old journalist.

A court has since ordered a formal investigation into the matter. 

On Monday morning, the compilation of evidence against Fenech saw a marathon of 21 witnesses testify in court. 

The last two of those witnesses were from telecoms companies Epic, formerly known as Vodafone Malta, and Melita, who testified how they had received requests for mobile phone data from Superintendent Keith Arnaud.  

The requests were for both Cutajar and Brincat’s personal mobile phone numbers.

Following cross examination by Fenech’s defence team, both witnesses were asked to present further information, including how long the mobile numbers had been active, and whether these two persons of interest had any other numbers registered with their service.  

Body parts blown out of car

Earlier during Monday’s sitting, the court heard more than two hours of testimony from first responders on the crime scene.  

They detailed the blazing car at the crime scene, that was so engulfed with flames that their limited fire-fighting equipment stood no chance of controlling the blaze.

Medical witnesses from Mater Dei Hospital’s Emergency Department told the court how although they had arrived at the scene hoping to save lives, they immediately realised that that would not be possible.  

One responder, an emergency doctor, said that all she could do was use sheets from the ambulance to cover body parts that had been blown out of the car.  

Meanwhile, a number of soldiers from the Armed Forces of Malta, told the court how they were tasked with combing through the site of the explosion. 

Forming a line a few feet apart, soldiers from the AFM’s bomb disposal unit combed through the scene of the explosion, handing any evidence to foreign forensics experts, assisting the investigation.

The compilation of evidence will now continue on April 8, and 10am, with the prosecution expected to present further witnesses.

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