JOURNALIST’S MURDER

The police extracted almost two terabytes of CCTV footage from various places around Malta as part of the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, the court was told yesterday morning.

Court-appointed expert Keith Cutajar was the first to take to the witness stand as the compilation of evidence against three men accused of murdering Caruana Galizia continued on yesterday morning. The parties are planning to hold an on-site visit in Bidnija next week.

He said that footage from between 60 to 70 CCTV cameras had been extracted. The cameras were situated in Bidnija road, where the car bomb exploded, Burmarrad road, which is the main thoroughfare below Bidnija, the Valletta Cruise port terminal, Transport Malta’s port cameras, 27 street cameras, the camera at Percius car hire, Identity Malta and Mount St Joseph on the outskirts of Mosta.

During the last sitting, the court heard various police officers testify how they had been accompanied by experts from Europol during the various searches conducted at places linked to the accused.

George Degiorgio, his brother Alfred Degiorgio, and Vincent Muscat, were arrested last December and charged with the journalist’s murder.

A second witness, Balazs Szara, a hotel receptionist at the San Andrea Hotel in Xlendi, testified that Alfred Degiorgio had booked a one-night stay with breakfast last November.

The court had heard a man testify that Degiorgio had invited him to his hotel room in Gozo after the two had met at the Ħamrun chocolate festival a week after the murder.

The man told the court that he had spent 15 minutes with Degiorgio in the hotel room and since then had never had any contact with him.

The hotel receptionist exhibited documentation relating to checkins at the hotel and a guest list.

An Armed Forces of Malta diver testified about the searches conducted at sea near the potato shed in Marsa, where the accused were arrested.

He explained that searches took place over a 10-metre stretch out to sea, from the dockside, and various mobile phones were found on the seabed.

The phones were found in the sea between the two boats tied to the quay, but the witness could not recall the names of the vessels. He pointed out that one was a blue boat and the other was white.

On 4 December, the AFM diver found two phones – a Samsung and a Nokia – which were handed over to forensic experts.

Another AFM diver told the court he had found four mobile phones, some batteries, SIM card holders and Nokia covers, on the seabed.

Army divers spent all week inspecting the seabed, although the visibility was not good. He explained that they had been told to look for mobiles and items related to explosives.

Asked by defence lawyer Martin Fenech to describe what else was on the seabed, the soldier said there had been all sorts of rubbish. “It’s like a dumping area,” he said.

A laptop retrieved from Caruana Galizia’s house was last used in December 2015, court expert Alfred Cardona told the court.

The laptop, a maroon Dell mini, did not contain any recent material from the journalist’s blog, he said. It was the only laptop given to him for analysis.

In another sitting last December, Police Inspector Kurt Zahra had testified that no sign of Caruana Galizia’s laptop was found at the scene of the explosion and the victim’s son did not know whether she had taken it out with her.

Cardona said that Caruana Galizia’s son had told police she had stopped using the Dell laptop retrieved from the house.

Cardona said he had found some text exchanges between Caruana Galizia and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando on the laptop and stuff about a family holiday in Italy. He explained that if data were deleted and overwritten, it could be retrieved, but if it was deleted from the server, there was no going back. The expert said two cameras and a memory card had also been lifted from Caruana Galizia’s house to be analysed.

He explained that analysing any data saved to the Cloud was not his remit.

Arnaud had asked for measures to be taken to protect Caruana Galizia’s sources.

Last October, journalists had asked for Caruana Galizia’s sources to be protected throughout the investigation.

Comodini Cachia noted in court that the Institute of Journalists, in the aftermath of the murder, had filed a formal request in the inquiry for Caruana Galizia’s sources to be protected.

“As parte civile we have the obligation to protect any sources that she had. The other party’s professional secrecy only binds them, not their clients. The court must give direction as to how the information can be used by the defence,” Comodini Cachia said.

However, the prosecution and the lawyers appearing for the Caruana Galizia family agreed that the laptop under scrutiny was an old one and could be seen by the defence.

Police officers who searched George Degiorgio’s house in St Paul’s Bay, lifted all electronic equipment, including a PlayStation console.

Police officer Ray Sciberras from the vice squad said that along with two other officers, forensic experts and a member of Europol, he was instructed to search Degiorgio’s residence.

He told the court the door was opened by Degiorgio’s partner, who had a small child with her. The accused was not present.

Defence lawyer Cuschieri asked whether a search warrant was shown but the officer said he could not remember. The lawyer argued that no warrant was shown and all equipment was removed from the scene.

The other defence lawyer, Fenech, highlighted that the police present for the various searches did not know the name of the Europol experts. However, Arnaud insisted he had personally assigned the experts and would be testifying about it.

A request for bail will be discussed next Tuesday, while the parties will conduct an on-site visit on 20 April.

The case continues on 26 April.