AG requests dismissal of Degiorgios' last-minute request for court footage in Caruana Galizia murder appeal

The Attorney General's Office has asked a court to reject a last-minute request filed by the Degiorgio brothers, less than a week before a court is scheduled to start hearing their appeal.

The Court of Criminal Appeal will this week begin hearing the appeal filed by brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio to the 40-year sentence they received after admitting to carrying out the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The appeal had been filed less than two weeks after the defendants had been sentenced after pleading guilty on the first day of their trial by jury, after having dismissed their legal aid counsel and engaging private lawyers. The defendants had been provided with legal aid lawyers during their trial because they had been unable to find another lawyer willing to represent them after their previous lawyer had renounced their brief.

The Degiorgios’ first ground of appeal was that the six weeks their legal aid lawyers were given to sift through the 'colossal amount of evidence' before the trial began was not sufficient.

The second ground for the appeal was Alfred Degiorgio’s self-inflicted weakened state, a result of a hunger strike. This affected his ability to resist, or properly think through, his brother’s suggestion to throw in the towel, it was argued.

Four days ago, the Degiorgios, through their lawyers Noel Bianco and Leslie Cuschieri, filed another application, petitioning the court to order that CCTV footage from Corradino prison and the court lockup be exhibited as part of their evidence to support this claim.

In his reply to the Degiorgios’ application, Deputy Attorney General Philip Galea Farrugia highlighted the fact that before the brothers were allowed to plead, the presiding judge had ordered that Alfred Degiorgio be medically examined to establish whether he was fit to stand trial.

The medical specialists appointed by the court had confirmed “without a shadow of a doubt” that Alfred Degiorgio could be tried, said the prosecutor.

“With all due respect, the ‘evidence’ being requested in the present application, that is CCTV… have a probatory value that is greatly inferior to the consistent evidence arising from the testimony of the two experts.”

At best, said the prosecutor, the footage could confirm that Alfred Degiorgio had needed to be brought into court in a wheelchair, something which the Attorney General was not contesting.

Galea Farrugia added that he was duty bound to register his disapproval of the fact that despite the appellant having been aware of his alleged state of health since October 14, and despite him having filed this appeal claiming ill-health on November 3 2022, nearly four months ago, it was only now “basically on the eve of the hearing of his appeal sitting,” that the appellant chose to request the production of security footage, "which has most probably been overwritten."