The lawyers of the three men charged with assassinating journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia are set to call for the cross-examination of middleman and whistleblower Melvin Theuma.

Theuma has already testified in the compilation of evidence against the men, delivering a shocking testimony where he provided intimate details on how the murder was planned in exchange for a presidential pardon.

While he has recordings backing up his evidence, Theuma’s pardon hinges on him putting forward a true testimony to the courts.

He is yet to be sufficiently challenged on his version of events, and while lawyer William Cuschieri kept his cards close to his chest, expect a confrontational exchange between the pair.

A formal request will be submitted sometime next week. It is as yet unknown when the cross-examination of Theuma will take place, but it is expected to happen before the next scheduled sitting of this case, which is on 6th March.

Speaking during the preliminary sittings of their trial, Cuschieri presented a long list of exceptions to the evidence obtained against Alfred Degiorgio, his brother George, and Vince Muscat.

Chief amongst them were issues with phone records acquired during the investigation before the men were even arrested.

Cuschieri argued that the prosecution went above and beyond what is legally allowed, using legislation that has since been superseded and should, therefore, be declared null and void.

“The prosecution used laws that are inconsistent and declared null by the EU Courts, breaking their fundamental rights,” Cuschieri said.

George Degiorgio has already filed a constitutional case on the issue, arguing that the police had tapped his phone illegally, without a warrant from the Malta Security Services, and that this evidence should, therefore, be dropped.

During the compilation of evidence against Degiorgio, his brother Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, police inspector Keith Arnaud had testified that he was in possession of intercepted phonecalls which implicated George Degiorgio in the murder of Caruana Galizia.

These include a call made by Degiorgio asking for a top-up voucher, which he then allegedly used to send a message to a device that had been attached to Caruana Galizia’s car, triggering it and causing the explosion.

Moments after the murder, Degiorgio also messaged his girlfriend to say he had “caught two big fish” and to ask her to buy a bottle of wine to celebrate.

However, the murder suspect warned that the police hadn’t presented the transcripts or recordings in court, hadn’t stated whether the Security Services had granted a warrant for these interceptions and hadn’t brought forward the Head of the MSS as a witness to confirm their authenticity.

Under Maltese law, phone tapping warrants are issued by the Home Affairs Minister,  something which was recently flagged as problematic by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).