The police commissioner has filed a request for a copy of Vince Muscat's testimony, a week after the hitman testified about an alleged aborted plot to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia in the years before she was assassinated.
The request was made by means of an application filed in the records of an action for damages filed by Caruana Galizia’s family against a number of players allegedly involved in the car bomb explosion that killed the journalist outside her Bidnija home in October 2017.
The civil lawsuit was originally instituted against businessman Yorgen Fenech, who awaits trial over his alleged complicity in the plot together with brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio who were each jailed 40 years after pleading guilty as hitmen at the start of their trial last year.
Muscat, the third hitmen, also pleaded guilty in 2021 and is currently serving a 15-year term after striking a plea deal with prosecutors to provide information about the murder.
Muscat also secured a presidential pardon in exchange for information about another murder which took place in 2015. In that hit, lawyer Carmel Chircop was gunned down inside a Birkirkara garage complex one morning when heading out to work.
Self-confessed middleman in the Caruana Galizia assassination, Melvin Theuma, is also being sued for damages.
As further police investigations led to other arrests, the journalist’s family called in two other defendants into the suit, namely Robert Agius, known as Tal-Maksar, and his alleged associate Jamie Vella, who are also awaiting trial for having allegedly supplied the bomb in the 2017 murder.
Earlier this month, Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, while testifying in the action for damages, made reference to a plot the hitmen had started working on “some three years before” the 2017 murder.
He said he had driven George Degiorgio to Portomaso to meet with Cardona, the former economy minister, who was to hand over €150,000 for the plot to “get rid” of Caruana Galizia.
“In truth, I never saw Cardona but George told me that those €150,000 were coming from Cardona,” Muscat said, under questioning by Fenech’s lawyer.
Muscat also made reference to lawyer David Gatt who used to frequent the hitmen’s haunt at the Marsa potato sheds, suggesting that he [Gatt] was “the broker" [sensar] in the plot.
The Degiorgios used to ask the lawyer to get the money since “he used to be with Cardona,” Muscat explained.
The court, presided over by Madam Justice Anna Felice, subsequently decreed that once ready, the transcript of Muscat’s testimony would be inserted in the case file and would be available for perusal by the Police Commissioner at the court registry.
A complex case
A week after that testimony, the Police Commissioner filed an application in those proceedings explaining that investigations into the journalist’s murder were still ongoing and that information supplied by Muscat proved necessary for further investigations.
Police had come across allegations about a pre-2017 plot which was to be carried out and in respect of which no one had yet been prosecuted.
Upon his arrest in November 2019, Fenech had handed investigators a letter, allegedly authored by ex-OPM staff Keith Schembri, detailing Cardona’s involvement with the Degiorgio brothers and his plans to kill Caruana Galizia. Fenech later said the plan to pin the murder on Cardona came from Schembri, who was the real mastermind behind the journalist’s assassination.
Police have faced criticism for not properly investigating the claims against Cardona and Schembri. Both men were questioned by investigations in November 2019, before being released without charge.
Investigators say they have been unable to corroborate the claims made against Cardona and Schembri. Fenech, Cardona and Schembri all deny having any role in the murder.
Correction. A previous version of this article erroneously stated that Vince Muscat claimed to have driven Chris Cardona to the Portomaso meeting.