Prime Minister Voices Concern As Caruana Galizia Murder Suspects Move Closer To Freedom
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said he is concerned at the latest court delay in the case against the three suspects who have been accused of killing journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
“Rule of law requires a clear separation between the judiciary and the executive and I have faith in the Chief Justice and the justice administration to weigh out everything that has been going on and to take the necessary decisions,” he said in comments to the press this morning. “It would definitely be unacceptable for such an important case, which the police worked so hard on, to collapse on the basis of a legal procedure. I’m sure the justice administration is looking closely at this and I’m, sure they will take the necessary decisions as quickly as possible.”
The court against the three murder suspects George Degiorgio (Iċ-Ċiniż), his brother Alfred (Il-Fulu) and their friend Vincent Muscat (Il-Koħħu) took another detour this morning, after magistrate Charmaine Galea recused herself from her case due to a perceived conflict of interest.
In doing so, Galea became the second magistrate to withdraw from the case, after Donatella Frendo Dimech did the same last week.
Magistrate Charmaine Galea
Galea’s perceived conflict of interest stemmed from a critical blogpost Caruana Galizia had penned when Galea had been appointed magistrate in 2013, and from the fact that she had once represented MaltaToday in a libel case instigated by the paper against Caruana Galizia.
Despite this brief history, it was the prosecution who unsuccessfully urged Galea not to recuse herself, warning doing so would delay the case even further and cause a travesty of justice.
There is now serious concern that the three suspects will be released from jail in a month’s time unless a magistrate with no perceived conflict of interest can be found. Malta’s criminal law states that suspects have to be released on bail, whatever the charges, if the Attorney General doesn’t issue a bill of indictment within 20 months from their arraignment. More worryingly, if a magistrate can see no prima facie evidence for a bill of indictment to be issued within 30 days of the charges being filed in court, then the suspects would be discharged unconditionally and the police would have to present new evidence to charge them again. At the moment, there is no prima facie evidence because the recusal of the two magistrates has delayed the police from presenting their evidence. Therefore, unless a magistrate can be found within 20 days, the suspects will walk free.
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