Judges reject Degiorgio brothers' bail request, say reasonable suspicion justified extension of arrest

The Court of Criminal Appeal has once again denied bail to brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, who are indicted for carrying out the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia 2017, saying the risk of public disorder should they be released, is still high.

The men have been held in custody ever since their arrest in December 2017. They are facing separate proceedings for money laundering as well as those related to the murder. All of their numerous bids for bail have failed so far.

In a decision handed down on Friday, Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, together with judges Joseph R. Micallef and Giovanni Grixti, said that there was merit to the concerns raised by the Attorney General.

The court observed that decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Maltese courts of Constitutional jurisdiction suggested that the right to bail is circumscribed by elements which vary from case to case, where the court has to consider the nature of the crime together with reasonable suspicion of tampering with evidence, the possibility of absconding and similar concerns surrounding the court’s confidence that the accused would observe his bail conditions.

This had to be weighed against both the interests of the accused in the light of the principle of the presumption of innocence, as well as those of “a society which has not only the right but the duty to see that a fitting hearing is given to its citizens, which includes seeing that every judicial process comes to an end according to law.”

The AG argued that the gravity of the crimes themselves were conducive to a risk of the accused absconding, saying that it was higher given the alleged criminal connections of the applicants. Every case had to be decided on its own merits, said the public prosecutor.

The court ruled that the AG’s concerns were not baseless and said that they would be classified by the European Court of Human Rights as a “reasonable suspicion,” which would justify the extension of the accused’s detention.

It’s resolve was strengthened by evaluating the interests of the accused men against those of society, where the weight of the possibility of public disorder still weighed against the other interests, as laid out in the Criminal Court’s previous decisions on the Degiorgio’s bail requests.

Lawyer William Cuschieri represented the Degiorgios.