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My Phone Was Tapped Illegally, Says Man Suspected Of Murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia

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One of the men charged with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is formally requesting that evidence against him be dropped because of alleged irregularities in the way police had tapped his phone.

George Degiorgio has filed a constitutional case, 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.

In court today, Degiorgio’s lawyer William Cuschieri formally requested that police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, chief homicide inspector Keith Arnaud and the head of the Malta Security Services to testify. The court, presided over by Judge Toni Abela, set two dates for later tis month to hear their testimonies.

George Degiorgio has been charged with murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia

George Degiorgio has been charged with murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia

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).

READ NEXT: Lawyer Dumps Daphne Caruana Galizia Murder Suspect

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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