One of three men awaiting trial for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed they originally planned to shoot the journalist through a window where she often sat while working at home, it has emerged.
Caruana Galizia died in October 2017 when a bomb planted in her car exploded as she drove away from her home in the village of Bidnija. She was 53.
The claims about how the killing was planned were revealed on Thursday by Reuters, which obtained information about the confession of Vincent Muscat, one of the three men accused of planting the bomb. The news agency received the information in April last year but held back from publication until now to protect the police inquiry.
Muscat is accused alongside two brothers, Alfred and George Degiorgio. The brothers continue to deny Daphne’s murder and have declined to answer police questions. Marc Sant, a lawyer defending Muscat, declined to comment, as did lawyers for the brothers.
According to Muscat’s reported account, the brothers acquired a rifle with telescopic sights from Italy. He alleged it was Alfred who was going to fire the weapon.
The gang began their work by watching Daphne’s movements, tailing her car and observing her home. They identified a window where she often sat while working on her laptop. At one stage, sandbags were placed on a wall that had a view of the window to provide a stable rest for the rifle.
Eventually, it was claimed, the three settled on a different plan. They obtained a bomb, bought from Maltese gangsters and apparently supplied by the Italian mafia. The next few weeks were spent working out how and when to detonate the device.
Caruana Galizia lived in a house set within a walled compound. She usually parked her car inside the compound. That posed an obstacle to her would-be killers, who needed access to the vehicle to place the bomb. In case they had to climb into her garden to reach it, they devised a leash to control the dog that ran around inside.
But Muscat claimed that on the evening of 15 October 2017, he and the Degiorgio brothers realised the car had been parked outside the gate. Later that night, in the early hours of 16 October, police have said in court, the two Degiorgios and Muscat went to Bidnija to plant the bomb.
The person briefed on Muscat’s confession said he alleged that Alfred broke into the car by levering open a window. With George watching out from a high vantage point and Muscat watching the lane outside the house, Alfred crept inside the car and put the bomb under the driver’s seat.
According to Muscat’s testimony, the killing was allegedly contracted in the summer of 2017 when Muscat dropped his friend Alfred at the Busy Bee, a harbour-front cafe near Malta’s capital renowned for its pastries. Degiorgio didn’t stay long. A few minutes later he jumped back into the car to report to Muscat that they had a contract: to kill the island’s best known journalist.
In interviews with police, Muscat named a taxi driver and loan shark called Melvin Theuma as the middleman who had arranged Daphne’s killing, the person familiar with his confession said. Muscat drove Alfred Degiorgio to several meetings with Theuma, Muscat told police.
Muscat first gave his evidence last year in the hope of obtaining a presidential pardon in return for information that could lead to those who ordered the killing.
In the end, the pardon was granted to Theuma after his arrest this month. Theuma was given immunity from prosecution on Monday after alleging that a well-known businessman, Yorgen Fenech, paid for the killing. Fenech’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Speaking for the first time since Muscat’s arrest, his wife, Pauline Muscat, claimed her husband had been treated unfairly. “It’s a complete injustice that Theuma should give evidence against Vince when Vince was the one that led police to him and helped solve this case,” she said. “He is the one who should be pardoned, not Melvin.”
This article is based on an investigation by Stephen Grey at Reuters
