Court receives optimised copies of recordings made by Melvin Theuma in Caruana Galizia murder case

The compilation of evidence against the three men accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia continued this morning, with optimised copies of audio recordings made by middleman Melvin Theuma being exhibited.

Court expert Keith Cutajar took the stand before Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit, explaining that on 12 June he had been ordered to make extra copies of recordings he had exhibited before and optimised the audio files he had exhibited.

George Degiorgio, his brother Alfred, and Vince Muscat are charged with carrying out the assassination on 16 October 2017.

In a short sitting, the expert explained that the cleaned-up audio eliminated background noise using software. He said 133 recordings were optimised. The others did not require optimisation.

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi asked whether the quality of the recordings had improved and whether words were clearer and whether more had emerged than the previously exhibited evidence. “Yes,” Cutajar said. 

The court decreed that the same recordings can be exhibited for the proceedings against Yorgen Fenech on Monday, instead of being re-done, as the adjustments were made manually and would not create the same result if repeated.

Three transcribers were appointed and ordered to divide the workload between themselves. The case will continue on 25 June.

Lawyers Marc Sant and William Cuschieri are defence counsel to the accused men. Deputy Attorney General Philip Galea Farrugia and police inspector Keith Arnaud prosecuted. Lawyer Jason Azzopardi appeared parte civile.