George Degiorgio gives police 24-hour deadline to exhibit phone taps

Degiorgio threatens further court action against the AG, Police Commissioner and Security Services head should deadline not be met

Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio
Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio

One of the men accused of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has given the authorities 24 hours to exhibit the phone tap recordings and transcripts which led to his arrest, threatening further court action if they fail to do so.

George Degiorgio’s lawyer, William Cuschieri - who is also lawyer to Alfred Degiorgio - made the demand in a judicial letter filed this morning.

In it, he refers to the judicial protest filed by the Degiorgio brothers in August - the reply in which he was advised to raise the issue of the phone intercepts as a preliminary plea before the Criminal Court - and to the Constitutional case he filed on 9 October

Both the judicial protest and Constitutional case revolve around the issue of the phone taps.

“As, despite all the requests made by the plaintiff, you have still not produced the alleged recordings and their transcripts under oath and accompanied by the warrants which should have authorised them, you are acting in flagrant breach of the law which you are supposed to safeguard,” reads the application.

This would be the last warning, reads the letter, which was addressed to the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and the Head of the Security Services. Failure to comply would mean that Degiorgio would proceed against them without further notice.

Last week, the Constitutional Court refused to grant an interim measure to George Degiorgio that would have suspended the criminal proceedings against him. Degiorgio had asked the court to suspend criminal proceedings pending the outcome of the wiretap case.

George Degiorgio, his brother Alfred Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat stand accused of preparing, planting and detonating the car bomb that killed Caruana Galizia two years ago.