Criminal Court turns down Adrian Agius bail request

The Criminal Court has turned down a bail request filed earlier this month by Adrian Agius, better known as tal-Maksar.

Agius is undergoing criminal proceedings in which he accused, together with his brother Robert and associate Jamie Vella, of supplying the bomb used to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017. He is also accused of commissioning the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop in 2015.

Adrian Agius is accused of commissioning the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, a creditor of the More Supermarkets chain, who was shot dead inside a Birkirkara garage complex in October 2015.

Vella and the Agius brothers were initially arrested in December 2017 but were later released without charge. They were re-arrested this year after Vince Muscat, il-Koħħu, admitted his role in the Caruana Galizia murder, for which he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

In a decree handed down yesterday, the Criminal Court presided over by judge Giovanni Grixti, denied Agius bail after noting that Agius was facing charges over serious offences including criminal conspiracy.

“This charge alone already causes one to fear that the accused may abscond or the possibility that he commit other offences,” said the judge.

The court ruled that, without prejudice to the accused’s presumption of innocence, it had to be convinced that the grounds for which bail can be denied are not present. In this case it said it was not convinced of this and therefore denied bail.