Unrepentant Degiorgio ‘would have asked for €10 million’ to kill Caruana Galizia
In first ever comment to the press, Caruana Galizia hitman George Degiorgio tells Reuters he would have asked for more money had he predicted the fall-out from the assassination
Murder suspect George Degiorgio has confessed to his role in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and said he will implicate others who helped plot her assassination.
Degiorgio confessed to this in an interview with a Reuters journalist, saying that he would have asked for €10 million, as opposed to €150,000, in payment to kill the journalist.
He described the hit as “business as usual”, then adding that he feels sorry for the murder.
READ ALSO: Degiorgios will admit guilt in Caruana Galizia murder in exchange for reduced sentence
Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb attack as she left her home in Bidnija on 16 October 2017.
Degiorgio is indicted, together with his brother Alfred, over the murder.
The two were arrested and charged in December 2017, together with accomplice Vince Muscat, for carrying out the murder. Muscat confessed to his role in the murder last year.
Degiorgio, known as iċ-Ċiniż, was identified by the police as the person who remotely triggered the bomb that killed the journalist.
Police evidence presented in court put Degiorgio on his boat, the Maya, below the Great Siege Bell in Grand Harbour, when the SMS triggering the bomb was sent.
Degiorgio told Reuters that he will plead guilty ahead of any jury trial, and that he will provide testimony that will implicate others in the murder plot while revealing details about a previous unrealised plot to kill the journalist.
He said that his motive in all this was to secure a reduced sentence for himself and his brother. "We're not going down alone!" he told the journalist.
Both brothers have made several attempts through their lawyers to secure a pardon in return for testimony about their role in the murder and on other crimes that allegedly involve prominent figures.
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