Bail Conditions Of Caruana Galizia Murder Suspect’s Wife Relaxed So She Can Take Her Kids To Swimming Lessons
The latest court sitting involving two suspects accused of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia has revealed the lengths to which brothers George (Iċ–Ċiniż) and Alfred Degiorgio (Il-Fulu) went to benefit from Malta’s welfare state – as well as the leniency being shown to their family as the case continues.
Anca Pop, the wife of George Degiorgio, has been accused of money laundering following her husband’s arrest, and had been ordered not to leave the house before 7am.
However, during court on Thursday, Magistrate Joe Mifsud decided to relax Ms Pop’s bail conditions to allow her to accompany her children to swimming lessons early in the morning.
She will now be allowed to leave at 5:30am, instead of 7am as was originally ordered under her bail conditions.
This change in bail conditions was given after Dr David Gatt, Ms Pop’s lawyer, filed an application to change her curfew hours, explaining that she wanted to accompany her daughter to the early morning lessons. He provided documents to prove the swimming lesson times were accurate.
The prosecution did not object to this request, and after referring to the Convention on Rights of Child and EU Jurisprudence, the magistrate granted her the relaxed bail conditions.
Pictured: George Degiorgio’s Corvette
The court heard how brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, two of the three murder suspects, had been getting welfare benefits such as social security due to being registered as unemployed for years.
George Degiorgio has been legally unemployed since 1983, when he was a construction worker, and a Social Security Department representative confirmed that he had been receiving social benefits since 2002, alongside benefits for three of his children.
In that time, he has purchased a number of personal pleasure boats, sports cars, and even transferred about €25,000 internationally via Western Union.
He’s also sent his four children to a private school, all while his bank account remained mainly dormant. An Inland Revenue Department representative also confirmed that neither George nor his wife were tax registered.
Pictured: George and Alfred Degiorgio