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Brothers Charged With Caruana Galizia Murder Promise To Be Electronically Tagged And Spend Nights In Prison In Fresh Bail Request

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Alfred and George Degiorgio, the two brothers charged with assassinating Daphne Caruana Galizia, have asked to be electronically tagged and spend nights in prison in order for them to be granted bail.

“One of the bail conditions on the Degiorgios is to submit themselves to electronic tagging. They are ready to sleep in prison if it’s too inconvenient for the prison director to monitor them 24/7. They are ready to submit themselves to any other conditions that the court deems necessary,” their lawyer William Cuschieri argued a sitting this morning.

Cuschieri even pledged that any night time spent in prison would not be reduced from any sentence they might receive.

Prison director Colonel Alexander Dalli has recently introduced electronic tagging. In court, Dalli said that they are used during the rehabilitation process, to help prisoners start working while in prison.

“For the first time in history, prisoners were sent to their families during Christmas time. The electronic tagging is still in the stage of experimentation,” Dalli said.

However, Deputy Attorney General Philip Galea Farrugia insisted that electronic tagging as the prison director’s personal initiative.

“In the case of pre-trial detention, the court cannot impose electronic tagging if there is no legal framework for it. It’s the police who have the authority to see that the accused follow their bail conditions,” he said.

Cuschieri also stressed that any claims of a covert bail request by middleman Melvin Theuma are “unjust and unfair” accusations on his clients because the allegations cannot be verified.  He said they should, therefore, have no bearing on Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit’s decision.

He added that Theuma has also submitted all his evidence to the court, reducing any threat that they could prejudice the case.

“The accusations are serious, but the seriousness should not prevent the accused from getting bail. They have been under preventive arrest for two years now,” he said.

However, Galea Farrugia claimed that there were fears that the case could be bigger than initially thought.

“The investigations are ongoing. There have been major developments and it there could be more,” he said.

The Magistrate will decide on the bail request during the next sitting on Wednesday 18th March at 9am.

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Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.

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