Vince Muscat, one of the three men charged with carrying out the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, is requesting a reply from Malta’s President for a presidential pardon in exchange for turning state evidence on unsolved crimes.

The Times of Malta has reported that Muscat’s lawyer Marc Sant has now sent a third letter to President George Vella asking for a reply to the pardon request so his client could offer up information on a number of unsolved crimes.

Sant has seen two previous letters sent to President in November and December 2019 ignored. A previous pardon request in April 2018 was refused.

State witness Melvin Theuma’s secret recordings with Yorgen Fenech have revealed that Muscat was willing to give up several details about unsolved murders, including Jonathan Pace, the owner of Tyson Butcher, who was shot in the back and head while standing on a balcony in Fgura.

At the time of the recording, the pair say that Muscat was willing to speak up on a number of murders but would not give information on the HSBC heist.

Muscat was arrested and charged in connection with an attempted heist of HSBC’s Qormi branch in 2010. The Degiorgio brothers were linked.  The masterminds behind the Qormi heist, a €1 million hold-up in 2007 and an attempted hold-up of a security van carrying €2.8 million remain unknown.

Given their murder of Caruana Galizia, there are also questions as to whether the men were involved in the spate of car bombings that occurred in the lead-up to the assassination.

There had been 19 car bombs between 2010 and 2017. With practically all of the victims linked to the criminal underworld, they were often forgotten by the Maltese public while authorities found many dead ends.

The last fatal one was Caruana Galizia. There have been no car bombs since, barring a failed attempt in Fgura, which quickly led to arrests.

Theuma has hinted the men were involved, but nothing is set in stone as of yet.

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