Koħħu Testifies That Jamie Vella Pulled The Trigger On Lawyer Carmel Chircop

Prisoner Vince Muscat, known as Il-Koħħu, testified in court that Jamie Vella had pulled the trigger that killed lawyer Carmel Chircop in October 2015.

Muscat testified in court today during the jury trial against Vella, brothers Adrian and Robert Agius (Tal-Maksar) and George Degiorgio, who have been charged with the murder of Chircop.

Robert Agius and George Degiorgio have also been accused of supplying the bomb that killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017.

Muscat, the prosecution’s star witness, said that he first started discussing the hit on Chircop at the infamous Marsa potato shed in September 2015.

He said that the Maksar brothers showed up and informed him and Degiorgio of their intention to kill Chircop, promising to pay him €20,000 and informing them that Jamie Vella would accompany them to carry out the hit.

He said that they wanted Chircop dead because Adrian Agius had a problem with him over an unpaid loan of around €800,000.

Muscat said that he and Degiorgio spied on Chircop at his Valletta office, while he was eating out with his wife at a Birgu waterfront, and at a Naxxar cafeteria he used to frequent. They eventually found out that he would park his car in a Birkirkara garage complex.

Muscat said that he had driven Degiorgio and Vella to a Santa Venera garage, where a stolen car was parked, and used it to drive them to the garage complex.

The car had tinted glass on its back windscreen.

After establishing which garage was Chircop’s, they put their plan in motion to murder the lawyer.

The plan was to kill him as soon as he opened his garage in the morning to go to work. He said that Degiorgio drove the vehicle, wore a cap and a handkerchief over his mouth, and pulled the car’s sun visor down.

Muscat and Vella sat in the backseat wearing black balaclavas with three holes for their eyes and mouth.

When they arrived in the Birkirkara garage, Vella got out of the car to keep a lookout for Chircop. When he spotted him, he rushed back into the car and informed his accomplices. Degiorgio then drove the car against a wall in front of the lawyer’s Chircop and waited for him.

Chircop put his work bag down to open his garage door, and at that point Degiorgio spun the car around to give Vella a clear shot from a few feet away. Muscat said he turned away as Vella shot Chircop more than four times.

After killing Chircop, they parked the getaway vehicle back in the Santa Venera garage and left in Muscat’s car to Vella’s apartment. They all took a shower, dumped their clothes in a garbage bag and parted ways.

A few days later, they discarded the gun in a patch of silt in Marsa. Vella was supposed to dispose of the getaway car, but Muscat said he doesn’t have information on whether he did so.

Muscat confirmed that he received the €20,000 in three instalments.