Plans to carry out a dangerous raid on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s suspected killers were leaked to the “underworld”, one of the suspect’s former lawyers has confirmed.
Arthur Azzopardi, the ex-lawyer of self-confessed killer Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, said an “intermediary” had approached him with details of the planned December 2017 Marsa raid, days in advance.
Speaking in a Wondery podcast called 'Who killed Daphne' hosted by Reuters' Stephen Grey, Azzopardi said the intermediary asked him to prepare for the eventual arrests, so he could represent one of the suspected bomb triggermen.
According to the lawyer, apart from knowledge of the planned raid, the unnamed intermediary also knew what the police’s evidence against the suspects was.
Azzopardi said he did not go to the police about the leak, for fear that the same police mole would tell the “underworld” that the lawyer had spilled the beans about the leak.
The lawyer said he was left shocked at how the probe was “leaking like a sieve”.
“I couldn’t eat... I couldn’t sleep. I had no energy. I couldn’t walk properly. I was smoking cigarettes like there is no tomorrow… literally hoping and praying that no arresting officer gets injured,” Azzopardi said.
The lawyer said if he were to ever find himself in a similar situation, he would inform the police about the leak.
Self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma and murder suspect Yorgen Fenech have in the past also confirmed that they were leaked details about the investigations into their own alleged involvement, prior to their arrests in November 2019.
Following his arrest, Fenech had pointed his finger at his friend and then OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri as the source of some of the leaks.
Both Fenech and Schembri deny any involvement in the 2017 murder.
In a separate interview on the podcast, FBI agent Kieran Ramsey detailed how investigators painstakingly pieced together evidence that led to the arrests and prosecution of alleged triggermen George and Alfred Degiorgio, together with Koħħu.
Ramsey, who led the FBI investigation, said the key lead that led to the triggermen came from the wreckage of Caruana Galizia’s rental car.
Investigators, he explained, were able to establish that the bomb was detonated by a mobile phone.
“In the days and weeks that followed, our team was poring over the analysis. Our technical investigations showed various cell phones that were connected to one another. That led to the Malta police identifying the subject connected to those phones,” Ramsey said.
The FBI agent also spoke about the horrendous effects of the car bomb used to kill the journalist in October 2017, after visiting the Bidnija site a day after the murder.
“You could see the wreckage of this car. Twisted metal. Burnt metal. You could still smell the after-effects of this.
“It is disturbing to see the after-effects of a car bomb and know the violence and devastation it causes to a victim. It is heart-breaking,” he said.