Caruana Galizia Murder Suspect Challenges Secret Services Law After Phone Tap Reveal
Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect George Degiorgio has filed a constitutional case in an attempt to declare the act which regulates the Malta Security Service, better known as the Malta Secret Service, unconstitutional.
Degiorgio instituted fresh legal action through his lawyer William Cuschieri after a court awarded him €10,000 in damages due to the Malta Security Services having tapped his phone without proper authorisation.
He warned that the Security Services Act breaches the European Convention of Human Rights as it doesn’t include any safeguards against abuse or any judicial ability to scrutinise phone tap authorisations.
Specifically, Degiorgio flagged a clause within the law which precludes questions from being asked in court about phone intercepts which may suggest an offence has been committed or a warrant issued.
This, he claimed, is inconsistent with his right to a fair hearing and privacy.
Degiorgio went on to insist that all evidence against him in the murder case that was obtained via phone tapping be expunged from the records.
This includes his crucial SMS requesting a top-up phone voucher which he then used to send a SMS to a device that had been attached to Caruana Galizia’s car, triggering the explosion that murdered the journalist.
Degiorgio insisted that the only way police could have found this out was via phone tapping, and that police therefore made use of evidence that was in itself gathered illegally.
“He can never have a fair trial faced with evidence which breaches the law and his fundamental rights,” Cuschieri wrote.
Cover photo: Left: George Degiorgio, Right: MSS head Joseph Bugeja (Photo: TVM)
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