Alleged bomb supplier Jamie Vella seeks evidence expungement

One of the men accused of supplying the bomb that killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia six years ago today, as well as the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, Jamie Vella, is seeking the expungement of evidence from the acts for the case. 

This emerges from pre-trial submissions made by Vella’s lawyer Ishmael Psaila. 

Vella along with brothers Robert and Adrian Agius, known as tal-Maksar, and George Degiorgio stand accused of being involved in the Caruana Galizia assassination as well as the fatal shooting of Chircop. Vella maintains his innocence.

Earlier this year, Vella had requested the revocation of the presidential pardon granted to Vincent Muscat known as as il-Koħħu, over the Chircop murder, claiming that Muscat had made up at least part of his testimony.

Muscat had been pardoned in February 2021 for his role in the fatal shooting of Chircop in return for information about who had ordered the lawyer’s murder.

He was also sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years after pleading guilty in connection with the Caruana Galizia murder, also on condition that he provide information about that crime.

A subsequent attempt by Muscat to obtain a separate pardon in return for providing insider information about two failed armed robberies and an assassination were unsuccessful. 

In their submissions, Vella’s lawyers had argued that Madam Justice Grima is currently presiding over multiple cases related to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. The judge is presiding over the case against Yorgen Fenech, who is indicted for masterminding the Caruana Galizia murder, where she has already ruled on the pre-trial pleas.

She had also sentenced the Degiorgio brothers and would have presided over their trial by jury had they not admitted to planting and setting off the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia on the first day of their trial.

Vella’s legal team had initially argued that, given her involvement in other cases related to the accusations against him, the Judge should recuse herself “in the interests of justice” and to ensure that he receives a fair hearing. This demand was later dropped, however. It was not the first time that persons accused of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia had tried to have Madam Justice Grima removed from presiding over their trial.  Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind of the murder had made a similar request, which had been thrown out by the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction.

The lawyers also demanded the deletion of any reference to the Agius’ brothers’ nickname Tal-Maksar since this could prejudice the jurors and instantaneously associate Vella with them.

Vella is also requesting the expunging of any CCTV footage and still images taken from it, which the prosecution plans to exhibit in the Chircop murder proceedings, on the grounds that the owners of the CCTV cameras in questions had not been asked to testify in the compilation of evidence, nor included in the list of witnesses during the trial, which they said, meant the footage and any reference to it would be hearsay evidence.

They are also claiming that the audio-visual statements released by Vincent Muscat are hearsay evidence and should be expunged, because Vella had not been given disclosure on this evidence and had no control over it.

They are requesting the expunging of the parts of Muscat’s testimony where he told the court what the co-accused had allegedly said to him or Alfred Degiorgio, on the grounds that Alfred Degiorgio is not listed as one of the prosecution witnesses, arguing that this also amounts to hearsay evidence.

The court is expected to hand down its decision on the requests in December.

Jamie Vella is being represented by lawyer Ishmael Psaila, while lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene Darmanin are defence counsel to Robert and Adrian Agius. Lawyers Noel Bianco and Leslie Cuschieri are appearing for George Degiorgio.