Daphne Caruana Galizia’s emails should be investigated by the police and presented in court

Magistrate Rachel Montebello placed me under contempt of court, after the Assistant Advocate General of the Republic of Malta, Philip Galea Farrugia wrote a note in the acts of the compilation of evidence concerning Yorgen Fenech regarding an article I had written about him. To this day, I am still in the dark to which article, Dr. Galea Farrugia was referring to in the note presented to Magistrate Montebello. Unfortunately, I am a common mortal, and unlike Manuel Delia, who has full access to Magistrate Montebello’s decrees, I do not have this privilege. The only way I can get to know anything about what Magistrate Montebello is decreeing about me is by reading Manuel Delia’s blog! I wish to remind readers that, in his blogs, Manuel Delia defends Galea Farrugia’s modus operandi particularly as to how he is leading the prosecution in the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

It should be noted that Dr. Philip Galea Farrugia is the prosecutor both in the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech and the compilation of evidence against the Degiorgio brothers and Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu.

This time round, Dr. Galea Farrugia’s way of conducting his prosecution against these three men was heavily criticised by the lawyer of the Degiorgio brothers to the extent that their lawyer, William Cuschieri, has filed a constitutional case so that the compilation of evidence for the case starts afresh. According to The Times of Malta’s report, Dr. William Cuschieri has attacked the discretionary powers of the Attonery General and the manner he has been behaving before the courts in the hearing of the compilation of evidence. I do not remember any  similar instance in our recent history in criminal justice where an attorney general was challenged at a constitutional level for the way he compiled evidence, regarding a high profile case, before the magisterial courts.

In his plea, William Cuschieri, on behalf of his clients, claims that “the Magistrates’ Court, conducting the criminal inquiry, was neither independent nor impartial since proceedings were effectively conducted according to the use “or rather abuse” of powers by the Attorney General”.

What William Cuschieri is arguing is the fact that Dr. Galea Farrugia has used his powers (and I quote) “to block cross-examination of witnesses and the gathering of fresh evidence requested by the accused, so that the court’s hands were tied”.

Moreover, according to the defence lawyer, Dr. Galea Farrugia objected to the summoning of the FBI expert Mario Cmarec, on the basis that the defence did not follow the proper procedure.  The same reason was given, following another request by the defence concerning exhibiting Daphne Caruana Galizia’s two laptops and three hard-drives which are in the  possession of the German Police.

I am sure that Daphne Caruana Galizia’s emails are extremely important and hold key elements which could give some explanation as to why she was assassinated.  

What would have been the scope of dragging the FBI and the German Police if there was no intention of actually making use of their services? Could it be that the prosecution has information as to what was found in Daphne’s devices and does not want it to come out for some unknown reason?

Despite the importance of such a request and despite the fact that the Criminal Court upheld the Degiorgio brothers’ request for the procurement of Daphne’s computer, Galea Farrugia chose to ignore the Criminal Court’s decision and moved on, according to the Times, immediately the very next day, to issue the bill of indictment against the alleged murderers without the compilation being definitely concluded. This appears very odd and gives the impression that the prosecution does not want  Daphne Caruana Galizia’s computer to be presented as evidence, at least, during this stage of compilation of evidence. But why? What this means is that such evidence cannot be produced, at least at this stage, as once the Attorney General issued the bill of indictment, the Magistrate’s court has no longer any competence over this case. Dr. William Cuschieri also requested a second onsite visit at Bidnija and called to determine all cell tower activity linked to particular towers on the day of the assassination back in October 2017.  This is a very important request. I strongly believe that ALL phone calls made on the day that Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated, including calls made by members of her family, should be investigated by the police. Were they investigated? If the police failed to do so, then there are serious shortcomings in this entire investigation.