Parte civile lawyers of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family have asked Magistrate Nadine Lia to recuse herself in the compilation of evidence against the Maksar brothers, George Degiorgio, and Jamie Vella. 

Lia’s father-in-law, Pawlu Lia, is the personal lawyer of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and other government officials. 

“This is being requested not and in no way as a reflection on the personal integrity of the magistrate, but in line with the decree of the same magistrate of the 4 December 2017, in the case Police vs Yorgen Fenech, where that day this magistrate had accepted the invitation of the parte civile for reasons which had been laid out in an application filed that day,” lawyer Jason Azzopardi told the court.

Lia has twice been made to recuse herself from cases related to the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination. She was initially assigned to the case against main suspect Yorgen Fenech and the magisterial inquiry into middleman-turned-state-witness Melvin Theuma’s phantom government job. 

She has now been tasked with overseeing the compilation of evidence over the murders of Caruana Galizia and Carmel Chricop, as they are being handled by the courts as one.  

Adrian Agius, George Degiorgio, who has already been charged with the Caruana Galizia assassination, and Jamie Vella were charged with carrying out the murder of Carmel Chircop on 8th October 2015. Agius has been charged with heroin possession and trafficking.

His brother, Robert, and Vella have been charged over their complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in particular how they supplied the explosive which killed her.

Besides being Muscat’s personal lawyer, Pawlu Lia is also the government’s representative on the Commission For The Administration Of Justice, which is responsible for disciplinary action against the judiciary and lawyers.

Lia also represented Muscat’s disgraced former chief of staff Keith Schembri, only dropping him as a client in the wake of his arrest amid a political crisis brought on by Fenech’s arrest.

He has also been involved in many of the court cases involving the Labour Party and its exponents, most notably facing off against Adrian Delia in his bid to publish a full version of the Egrant Inquiry.

Magistrate Nadine Lia was appointed in 2019, which was immediately controversial given her father-in-law’s links to the ruling government. The appointment was contested in court by activist group Repubblika, with the European Court of Justice set to give its ruling on the issue.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene Darmanin are appearing fro the  Agius brothers and Jamie Vella.  George Degiorgio is represented by lawyer William Cuschieri. Vella did attend court today as he is under mandatory COVID-19 quarantine till 11th March.

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