Degiorgio brothers could be out by 2043-44

The two men who were each sentenced to 40 years in prison after they admitted to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, could be out by 2043-44, lawyer Joe Giglio told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

The sentence was given on 14 October by Judge Edwina Grima after George Degiorgio, 58, and Alfred Degiorgio, 56, changed their plea from not guilty to guilty in a day of drama in the courtroom.

The brothers’ legal aid lawyers and the prosecution had agreed on a sentence of 40 years imprisonment; this was taken before the presiding judge, who acceded to the request.

The Malta Independent on Sunday contacted Giglio, a PN MP, whose profession is that of a lawyer, who gave a breakdown of the 40-year prison jail term.

He said that the first thing one would need to keep in mind is that every year of those 40 years given is equal to eight months and not the normal 12 months per year. This is what is known as remission. In other words, the system presumes that while serving a prison term you are going to adhere to prison regulations.

Giglio said that this four-month remission is given in good faith in advance on the pre-assumption that the accused is going to behave righteously throughout the duration of the prison sentence.

This means that, assuming that the brothers behave during their term of imprisonment, then they are supposed to serve 26.67 years (rounded up) in normal calendar years. Additionally, he said that the nearly five years spent under preventive arrest by the brothers, who were arrested in December 2017, can be subtracted only after having deducted the remission time.

Giglio explained that this means that if the brothers manage to adhere to prison regulations they would have served this whole sentence in 21.67 years’ time. In other words, the two brothers may be out of prison by 2043 or 2044. Of course, this does not include any other terms of imprisonment to which they may be sentenced in other cases.

In explaining what can be done for any prisoner to lose some of the “given in good faith” months, the lawyer said that it could be as easy as the prisoner deciding to offend a prison warden.

When this happens, the prisoner appears in front of a Board where the negative behaviour will be assessed and disciplined accordingly. And one of the measures which could be taken is precisely to take away the remission granted, or part of it, he explained.

As part of the judgment, the brothers were also ordered to pay all court expenses – €42,930 each.

Asked what would happen if such a sum were not to be paid, Giglio said that non-payment of Court expenses is converted into imprisonment at the rate of one day of imprisonment for every €11.65. When it comes to fines and Court expenses the remission rule does not apply.

When it comes to parole, Giglio said that the Degiorgio brothers would be eligible to apply for parole only after they have served 58% of their jail term.

He added that in the past Malta did not allow persons condemned to life imprisonment to ever be eligible to be released on parole, but our Constitutional Courts have decided that this is considered to be an infringement of basic human rights.

He said that when a prisoner applies for parole, the application is passed through a Board which will evaluate various considerations before taking a decision, including what the victims of the crime for which the prisoner was condemned think about this application. In other words, victims are consulted prior to a decision on parole being taken.*