Cover image by: Anna Calleja

Details of the alleged 2015 plot to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia were the focus of convicted hitman Vince Muscat’s cross-examination by Yorgen Fenech’s defence team. 

This came after the Attorney General’s office concluded its questioning, with today’s testimony focusing on Muscat’s life in prison after his arrest for the murder and his attempt to secure a pardon for information on Daphne’s murder.

The Bomb: Built to Kill And Maximise Harm 

Muscat also testified on the bomb, which he says was also attached to a petrol container to maximise damage. He said he overheard George Degiorgio tell Jamie Vella and Robert Agius that the bomb should not be like the one used on Romeo Bone, who survived with both legs severed.

“George wanted her gone, not just injured,” Muscat told jurors.

He described the device being placed inside the car on the passenger side, pushed under the driver’s seat against the side to maximise the blast; corroborating the pathologist’s contained-blast, back-to-front findings from last week.

The bomb, Muscat said, was supplied by Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, brought from abroad by catamaran from Sicily, at no cost he was aware of.

The 2017 plot, the alleged Cardona visits:

Muscat confirmed knowing Melvin Theuma for years from Ħamrun’s illegal lotto scene, and that he was associated with Edgar il-Gojja’ Brincat, but would not confirm de Marco’s suggestions of drug dealing.

He accepted he drove Alfred to Cardona “as many as 5 times before the killing”, but resisted the framing that these were to advance the plot.

“We went for information, not about the murder,” Muscat said.

Alfred, he said, told him Cardona “might give us some detail or help” locating Caruana Galizia during a spell when they had lost sight of her.

Muscat told the court he believed Cardona was receiving information from “Mr Valletta”, hedged as “I think, Silvio V”, an account he stressed came entirely from Alfred Degiorgio. 

In earlier sworn testimony read back to him in court, he had identified lawyer Edward Gatt as the intermediary between Cardona and Valletta.

In prior testimony also read back to him, Muscat had described Anthony Toni l-Iblah’ Sammut coming to the potato shed “in Cardona’s name” after the killing and sitting with Alfred for an hour or more at a time. M

Muscat confirmed the meetings happened and were concerned “something related to the killing”, and that they once drove to Fgura looking for him, but said he could not place them before or after the murder.

Muscat confirmed that after the murder David Gatt would come to the potato shed and make a “number 1” gesture, and that George explained it referred not to Cardona but to Keith Schembri: “the number 1 of Malta”, as Muscat put it, later softening this to how he personally saw Schembri: “we’d say how capable he is, a man of business”.

Muscat confirmed that in the days leading up to his December 2019 arrest, he and Alfred went looking for Cardona. They did not have his contact number, so went to a bar in Siġġiewi. He confirmed going to look for Cardona “for help”, and to having seen Cardona and Gatt there before the killing, but not on that day. 

Prior testimony read back to him suggested Alfred feared Cardona was about to leave the country; Muscat said he remembered “something similar”.

De Marco asked Muscat whether Schembri had allegedly told them to “keep their heads up” when arrested. Muscat said he remembered “something like that” from the Degiorgio brothers but could not recall it being attributed to Schembri.

“After that, we felt we had power,” Muscat said.

Testimony read back to Muscat also included the claim that the group knew in advance that George would be arrested and Muscat would not. Muscat said he could not remember this.

De Marco then put it directly to Muscat that his memory was failing selectively: “It worries me that whatever concerns Keith Schembri, you’re forgetting.” 

Muscat denied having any reason to forget, telling the court he had never himself said Schembri was involved – only that George had told him the “number 1” gesture was “not for Cardona but for Schembri”.

The 2015 plot and David Gatt’s role. 

Under questioning, Muscat confirmed that the 2015 hitmen were himself, George Degiorgio and Jamie Vella. Alfred Degiorgio, Muscat explained, was in prison at the time.

Muscat confirmed again that George told him four people wanted Caruana Galizia dead, naming Michael Cassar and Cardona among them; the other two he could not recall.

David Gatt, he said, acted as the middleman between the hitmen and Cardona. Muscat explained that they pressed Gatt for the 50,000 euro deposit to commit the murder, but it never came.

He described the 2015 plan in detail: a shooting, Jamie Vella firing a machine gun from a van door, and George the driver. He detailed how George began sending WhatsApp messages to Caruana Galizia, posing as a source with information. She rebuffed those advances and asked for a face-to-face meeting. He said they also followed her to her workplace.

Prison Money 

At the start of the day, Muscat spoke about his time in prison in the aftermath of his arrest in connection with the murder. 

Muscat described €200-€300 a week reaching him in prison, collected at the Marsa club and routed to his partner via her father, Peter Brincat. The money was paid by Lawrence’s ‘ Il-Lorry ‘ Pace. 

Separately, he said Robert Agius (tal-Maksar) and Jamie Vella approached Peter Brincat at a Marsa shop offering €1,500 a month for his silence; an offer refused, and one from which Muscat says he received nothing.

Turning to police

Muscat said he approached Keith Arnaud around early 2019, at the urging of his lawyer, Arthur Azzopardi, in hopes of a pardon. George confronted him in prison soon after, telling him he had been informed that he was talking and that it came from Melvin Theuma. 

Muscat testified he then feared for his family, namely an acid attack on his children, and, strikingly, in Arnaud’s office his own pardon lawyer, Azzopardi, pressed him to “invent” a false account implicating Theuma.

Under questioning from the defence, Muscat confirmed that Azzopardi asked him to change his story.

“I told Arnaud: As far as I know, Melvin Theuma was involved,” Muscat said.

He said Azzopardi was also representing Robert Agius at the time. Muscat maintained that he had only ever known Theuma as the source of the money, not Cardona or anyone else.

He said Azzopardi stopped representing him soon after. Azzopardi told him he was receiving threats, couldn’t sleep, and that the threats extended to Muscat’s children.