Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi floated the idea of claiming a €1 million reward for information on journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, while negotiating a pardon for one of her convicted killers, a court has heard.
Azzopardi was representing Vincent Muscat, one of three men who planted and detonated the bomb that killed the journalist.
The criminal lawyer allegedly made the comment to assistant police commissioner Keith Arnaud during a meeting as part of Muscat’s request for a presidential pardon in exchange for his evidence against the bomb suppliers.
Muscat, known as Koħħu, eventually secured a plea deal and is now serving a 15-year prison sentence for his role as one of three men who carried out the bomb attack on the journalist on October 16, 2017. He named Robert Agius and Jamie Vella as the men who supplied the bomb and is the star witness in the ongoing trial.
In his second day of testifying, lead investigator Arnaud described a conversation at the end of a meeting in which Muscat, accompanied by his lawyer, had requested a pardon.
Arnaud said he and Azzopardi were walking out of police headquarters when the lawyer said: “We’re going to ask for the million [reward]”.
Arnaud said he replied “What? For Vince? As if we’d give someone who killed a person a presidential pardon and one million.”
Azzopardi allegedly responded: “So he retracts everything.”
Arnaud thought the lawyer was joking during their conversation. He told the court that Muscat had never asked for the one million euro reward and that all he wanted was a pardon. This was later confirmed by Muscat’s family.
Days after the 2017 assassination, the government said it would give a one million euro reward for information leading to the identification of those behind the killing. The offer was strongly rejected by the Caruana Galizia family, who said they would only endorse it if the prime minister at the time, Joseph Muscat, carried political responsibility and resigned.
No date for this meeting about the pardon request was given in court on Wednesday although Muscat first began speaking to the police in 2018. In mid-March Arnaud was approached by Azzopardi, who informed him that Muscat wanted to speak about the case.
Arnaud met with Azzopardi and Muscat several times, including finally on April 23, 2018, at police headquarters where Muscat began giving information on what he said he knew about the Caruana Galizia murder.
He immediately mentioned Melvin Theuma which police linked to “M” in a call, and realised this was the alleged middleman in the hit. Muscat wanted a pardon but Arnaud said he could not promise and could only draw up a report.
Arnaud testified that on October 9, 2019, Azzopardi informed him that Muscat wanted to retract the information he had provided to the police as he felt threatened and was doing this for his own good and that of his family, and for his lawyer and his respective family.
Arnaud was shocked at the news, since the information provided by Muscat was true.
The investigator recalled looking at Muscat, who was sitting quietly, and asking “Vince, what are we going to do?”. Muscat replied: “What I said is the truth and I do not want to retract any of it.”
Eventually, Arnaud received an email from Azzopardi which was also sent to then AG Peter Grech and then prosecutor Philip Galea Farrugia, informing them that he renounced Muscat’s brief.
Muscat’s family spoke to Arnaud telling him they only got to know from the media reports and were not aware that Azzopardi had renounced the brief.
Arnaud was also informed that Muscat had more information but would not speak up until he found a new lawyer.
Agius and Vella are further accused, along with Adrian Agius and George Degiorgio, of the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop two years before Caruana Galizia was killed. Muscat secured a presidential pardon in exchange for information about the Chircop murder.
‘We could find out who commissioned the murder’
In his testimony, Arnaud said that there was no reason for the police not to go with the information Muscat had provided since it was corroborated.
He said that Muscat greatly helped the police investigation when he mentioned the involvement of Melvin Theuma, who later was granted a pardon for his evidence.
Theuma is the self-confessed middleman in the murder that he claims was commissioned by businessman Yorgan Fenech. Arnaud explained that in the recordings Fenech, who is awaiting trial, could be heard saying some things which implicate him in the murder.
“With the information Theuma was going to provide, we were going to get to who commissioned the murder,” Arnaud said, adding that in the case of Fenech, he was implicating himself in the murder when giving information to the police.
At the beginning of Wednesday’s proceedings, Jason Azzopardi, who is acting parte civile on behalf of the Caruana Galizia family, raised the issue of the reporting of the case by the state broadcaster.
Earlier, the prosecutors had questioned how TVM was reporting the story without having a court reporter present.
The court, presided by Edwina Grima, remarked that it was not appropriate for the state broadcaster to report when they are not present.
Wednesday was day 24 of the trial of the four men, who have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The jury was shown hours of recordings of police interrogation of Vella and the Agius brothers during 2015 and 2018.
‘I have nothing to do with the murder’
During his interrogation on October 12, 2015, Adrian Agius told police about his involvement in MORE supermarkets. He said that he and his business partners, Ryan Schembri and Etienne Cassar, had been negotiating with Carmel Chircop to purchase a warehouse in Ħal Qormi.
Agius explained that the property was valued at €2.3 million, and Chircop, who held a promise-of-sale agreement, stood to make €700,000 from the deal. To reduce tax, they reportedly signed a debt agreement (known as a “constitution of debt”) that would allow Chircop to avoid paying 35% tax.
Ryan Schembri is the former owner of MORE supermarkets, who fled Malta in 2014 as a long list of people claimed he had run off with their money.
Agius said that after Schembri disappeared and another partner, Darren Casha, left the country, he was unfairly pursued for debts that weren’t his responsibility. He pointed out that several of his assets were hit by garnishee orders.
Speaking to Inspector Keith Arnaud and Inspector Sandra Zammit, Agius said: “You can say whatever you want, but I had nothing to do with the murder]. Do you know how many people annoy me?”
After the lunch break, the jurors continued to watch the interrogations of the suspects Jamie Vella and Robert Agius. They first watched Vella’s December 2017 interrogation followed by a second one on January 11, 2018. Then they watched Robert Agius’ interrogation which was carried out on January 11, 2018 followed by another one in February 2021, when he was arrested based on the information provided by Muscat.
In the second interrogation, Agius exercised his right to silence when asked if he ever did business with Muscat, Degiorgio and Vella. He continued to exercise his right to silence when asked where they got the explosives from and whether they used their criminal contacts abroad including Italy, Albania, UK, Holland, and Libya.
When George Degiorgio was interrogated on February 24, 2021 in connection with Chircop’s murder, Degiorgio did not utter a word, as Arnaud asked him a series of questions based on the information Muscat provided.
Occasionally, Degiorgio lifted his eyes from the floor looked to the side, and mainly moved his head from side to side periodically.
The trial continues