George Degiorgio met Chris Cardona over 2015 plan to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia, court told

Daphne Caruana Galizia had to be gunned down by an AK47 assault rifle in an aborted 2015 plot to kill her, Vince Muscat il-Koħħu has testified. 

He said the approach to murder the journalist was first made by lawyer David Gatt between 2014 and 2015, following which George Degiorgio had to meet former minister Chris Cardona. 

In a comment to MaltaToday Chris Cardona dismissed the claims as “blatant lies and full of inaccuracies, every single detail.”  

Muscat was testifying in the compilation of evidence against George and Alfred Degiorgio, who stand accused of murdering Caruana Galizia in October 2017. 

Cross-examined by parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi, Muscat said that at the time of the first plot, he had taken George Degiorgio to Portomaso for a purported meeting with Cardona “because of Daphne”. 

Muscat said the price agreed for the murder was €150,000 with a €50,000 deposit, which, however, was never received. 

He explained to the court how the hit was supposed to have happened: “George And Jamie [Vella] were going to block the road with a van. They had an AK47 from abroad. I saw it with my own eyes. Jamie had likely brought the AK from abroad.” 

Vella is facing separate charges for his involvement in the Caruana Galizia and Carmel Chircop murders. He is an associate of the brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, known as Tal-Maksar. 

Muscat testified that Gatt had asked them to check out a BMW that belonged to Caruana Galizia, which was parked in a garage below the offices of The Malta Independent in St Julian’s. 

He added that George Degiorgio had obtained Daphne’s number from David Gatt and used to send her messages.  

“We would invent stuff. She never replied. One day, George said that he got a reply from the mobile. Galizia had said ‘mhux imbilli qed tibgħatli l-messaġġi, I don't know who you are’,” Muscat testified. 

The plan was eventually abandoned because they were never paid until a fresh plan was concocted in 2017 after they were approached by Melvin Theuma. 

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