One of the three men charged with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia has attempted to beef up his defence case by hiring Arthur Azzopardi, one of the country’s most renowned criminal lawyers.

Azzopardi made his first appearance in court on behalf of Vince Muscat today, where he instantly tried to poke holes in the police’s theory that his client had acted as a spotter in Bidnija.

This is because Muscat is blind in his right eye and has impaired vision in his left one, the result of being shot at in 2014.

After an ophthalmologist and a Mater Dei representative confirmed Muscat’s condition, Azzopardi questioned how it was possible that his client could have acted as a spotter if he was blind in one eye. In the same sitting, he requested bail for Muscat, stating that, despite being controversial, it was the legally just thing to do.

Azzopardi is also representing Muscat in an ongoing case over the notorious foiled bank heist on the HSBC Qormi headquarters back in 2010 that police had originally believed was masterminded by former policeman and now-lawyer David Gatt.

Muscat was shot in the eye in 2014 right after parking his car outside his home in Msida, an incident for which Jonathan Pace, the owner of the former Tyson Butcher in Żejtun, was charged. Pace himself was shot dead while standing in a balcony a week after he was released on bail.

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