The Degiorgio brothers are presently serving 40-year prison terms for their involvement in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. In a sworn statement provided in January, they alleged that former ministers Carmelo Abela and Chris Cardona had “issued instructions to facilitate the robbery at HSBC’s Head Office.”

In today’s session before Magistrate Montebello, the Degiorgio brothers were called in to testify their affidavit which indicates that former Labour ministers Abela and Cardona were involved in the 2010 HSBC heist.

The court asked Alfred Degiorgio if he could confirm its contents and he did so, revealing that he made the declaration to help his chances of obtaining a presidential pardon for the Caruana Galizia assassination.

“I wanted to reveal the people involved in the [heist] – David Gatt, Chris Cardona, Toni ‘l-Biglee’, Duminku ‘tal-SAG’… I will not do anything for nothing,” he told the court.

Alfred Degiorgio explained that when he and his brother filed the pardon requests, exposing the HSBC heist masterminds in the process, “the police didn’t even look at them”.

His brother George Degiorgio then testified to going to police HQ “about three of four years ago” to ask for a presidential pardon. He recalled how he and his brother spoke to Inspector Mercieca about the case but nothing happened.

“Nobody took any interest. We spoke about the HSBC heist… we wanted to mention others not listed in this statement… when the time is right I will mention them,” he said, asking the court “Had you wanted to hear the whole story, why weren’t we approached four years ago?”

He went on to claim that the brothers were betrayed by Chris Cardona over the heist, saying that they “are not doing this over the refusal of the pardon… there is also a lot to be said about the Balzan bank heist,” referring to a previous HSBC bank heist which took place in 2007.

In a comment to Lovin Malta, the defendant Azzopardi said in exasperation that “when Carmelo Abela organised the HSBC bank hold-up in 2010, he was deputy speaker of Parliament.”

“Despite the Degiorgio brothers’ testimonies that Abela was involved in the heist, he never sued them, and we are still sitting pretty with Abela in Parliament,” he continued.

Azzopardi also took to his social media to share the recent development in his libel lawsuit, questioning “Where are those people who ridiculed me and laughed at me?”

What do you make of this recent development?