Did the hitmen have a copy of the key of Daphne’s car? And if yes, who procured it to them?

The timing of the bomb is not the only variation that results from Monday’s compilation (Monday 9th March) against Degiorgio, Agius and Vella. Nor is the reason why the car was left outside on the night before Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered. There is another important detail and this time it concerns the car.

During this compilation of evidence, the way the hitmen opened the car to plant the bomb has changed from the version published in 2019. On 4 February 2019  Reuters reported how the hitmen forced open the backside window of the car. Here is the report:

“The person briefed on Muscat’s confession said Muscat alleges Alfred broke into the car by levering open the rear-quarter window passenger side. With George watching out from a high vantage point, and Muscat watching the lane outside Daphne’s house, Alfred crept inside the car and put the bomb under the driver’s seat.”

I had written an article about this fact and questioned this version of events some time ago. I stated that this does not make sense, as one cannot force open a side back window of a Peugeot 108 to enter it without breaking it. It is impossible for these types of cars to access them through the rear side windows.

I don’t know whether there is a connection between my article and the change in the narrative about how the hitmen accessed the car. But the new version given by Superintend Keith Arnaud raises more questions than it gives answers.  According to the report of The Times of Malta (9th March 2021) and I quote “Agius also got them a Peugeot 108 identical to Caruana Galizia’s car, to practice picking its lock“. Then, the report continues to state that and I quote “Alfred Degiorgio picked the car’s lock while George Degiorgio drove them there and back.”

Thus, there are two, if not three, different versions of the same event. But there is more. In the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech, one of the witnesses stated that he had picked a Peugeot car key from the ground. Till now, it has never been established whether this car key belonged to the car used  by Daphne Caruana Galizia on that day she was assassinated.  No doubt, the hitmen needed to pay attention to how they were going to unlock the car door as they did not want to damage it as the chances would have been that the owner would notice that the car had been tampered with. The fact that Daphne Caruana Galizia did not notice that the lock was “picked” shows that it was opened by some form of key.

Readers should remember that the police suspected at the time that the hitmen had access to the spare key of this car. This is what the Malta Independent had reported in the compilation of evidence against the Degiorgio brothers and Vince Muscat (Il-koħħu) in relation to this fact.

Therefore, the question that needs to be asked here is: What exactly happened for versions given under oath to be changed in such a sensitive case? It is more than likely that the hitmen opened the car locks rather than forced open the rear window. Nevertheless,  this last  version of events appears incomplete. Details are missing. Did the hitmen have an extra copy of the key of the car? And if yes, who procured it for them?