Robert Agius, Adrian Agius, and Jamie Vella will be charged with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia later this evening, Lovin Malta can reveal.

The two brothers, better known as Tal-Maksar, Vella, and George Degiriogio, one of the men who allegedly carried out the murder of Caruana Galizia, will also be charged with the 2015 murder of Carmel Chircop. 

Lovin Malta is reliably informed that the men will be charged this evening at 11pm. Lovin Malta will follow the sitting live. 

Caruana Galizia was murdered by a car bomb outside her home on 16th October 2017. Degiorgio, his brother Alfred, and Vince Muscat were arrested and charged with the murder on 5th December. Vella and the Agius brothers were also arrested that day, but they were never arraigned. 

Chircop was killed after he was shot four times while walking to a garage complex in John Borg Street, Birkirkara in October 2015. CCTV footage showed a light-coloured vehicle driving away from the crime scene. However, the crime remains unsolved. 

Sources have suggested that the Agius brothers will be identified as the masterminds behind the Chircop murder. Meanwhile, this newsroom has also been told that the Agius brothers and Vella were the ones to supply the bomb in the Caruana Galizia assassination.

The Agius brothers and Jamie Vella were arrested in connection to both murders soon after Vince Muscat pleaded guilty for his role in the Caruana Galizia assassination. He has been granted a presidential pardon in exchange for information on the Chircop murder.

When it comes to the Caruana Galizia murder, court sittings have already revealed that main suspect Yorgen Fenech even told middleman Melvin Theuma to send a “message to Maksar because that’s where the bomb was made”. Reports also claim that they even offered hush money to Muscat.

Meanwhile, Chircop was one of the investor in the now-defunct More Supermarkets, which was owned by Ryan Schembri, who fled Malta with loan sharks reportedly chasing him. 

Last year, MaltaToday reported that Chircop had in 2014 loaned €750,000 to Schembri, who is the cousin of former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and is still on the run to this day.

Adrian Agius had guaranteed the loan. The issue was settled soon after Chircop’s murder.

Muscat will eventually testify in both homicide cases and in the compilation of evidence against George Degiorgio and Alfred Degiorgio. It remains to be seen whether he will give up other information that will result in arraignments.

There are questions as to whether the Agius brother, Vella and Degiorgio were involved in the spate of car bombings that occurred in the lead-up to the assassination.

There had been 19 car bombs between 2010 and 2017. With practically all of the victims linked to the criminal underworld, they were often forgotten by the Maltese public while authorities found many dead ends.

Meanwhile, Muscat allegedly previously said he could provide several other murders, a notorious HSBC heist, and other crimes. He has allegedly implicated a sitting minister in a “very serious” crime to investigators.

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