Time to introduce electronic monitoring for people on bail, judge argues

Judge Giovanni Grixti has turned down a request for bail made by the three men accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Brothers Alfred Degiorgio (known as Il-Fulu) and George Degiorgio (Iċ-Ċiniż) as well as Vince Muscat (il-Koħħu), have been under arrest since a dawn police raid on a Marsa warehouse on 4 December.

All of the men’s previous requests for bail have been turned down by the court.

The attorney general had opposed the release of the three accused, in part due to ongoing investigations.

Lawyers for the three accused, who have been under arrest since 4 December 2017, had argued that there was no risk of their tampering with evidence or absconding.

This, however, was contested by the Office of the Attorney General, which revealed that the police were still investigating third parties in connection with this murder, and therefore the possibility of the accused tampering with evidence was a real one.

In a decision handed down on Wednesday, Judge Giovanni Grixti upheld the attorney general’s arguments and turned down the bail request. The attorney general was right when he had said that although it was an established principle that the gravity of an offence is not sufficient grounds to preclude bail, this criterion must be examined in the context of other factors, such as the possibility of escape or tampering with evidence, and also in the light of the prospective punishment, explained the court.

The court said it was not convinced that the accused were likely to stick to their bail conditions and so denied them this faculty.