Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1179886
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 OCTOBER 2019 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But investigators have, however, in- sisted that any information offered should also assist police in solving cases related to murders by car bombs – 19 in the last 10 years alone – or cases such as the 2010 HSBC heist, in which Muscat is accused for his part in the robbery. Muscat is, in fact, expected to stand trial for his role in the HSBC heist at the start of 2020. His defence lawyer in this case had been Azzopardi. Azzopardi only took on Muscat's brief as defence counsel in the Caruana Gali- zia murder in July 2019, taking over from legal aid Martin Fenech. Imme- diately, Azzopardi set out to obtain bail for Muscat after the end of the compila- tion of evidence against the three men. Azzopardi has also argued in court that Muscat was almost never men- tioned by the witnesses who presented their evidence to the court. "We were told that he is a spotter, but… it is not normal to have a spotter who is blind in one eye," he pointed out, referring to Muscat's disability – a consequence from being shot at close range outside his Msida home back in April 2014. Jon- athan Pace, who was charged with the attempted murder, was later gunned down while on the balcony of his Fgura home in August 2014. Muscat had been out on bail since November 2010 before his arrest in De- cember 2017. Azzopardi also filed a constitutional application on behalf of Alfred Degior- gio back in July, claiming a breach of human rights and damages for his client over the Attorney General's slow pro- gress in the prosecution of the Group 4 heist criminal case, for which Degiorgio had been arrested in 2000 together two other conspirators. Degiorgio is represented by William Cuschieri in the Daphne Caruana Gali- zia murder case. Judge's recusal Still unexplained so far is the recusal of the judge who was slated to preside the trial of the three men – Aaron Bugeja. Edwina Grima has been selected as the judge to preside over the trial now. No date has been set for the trial by jury but the recusal can only push the case back. As a magistrate, Bugeja had investigat- ed the Egrant affair, a story reported by Caruana Galizia in which the late jour- nalist claimed that the wife of Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat was the owner of a secret offshore company in Panama, and had received a $1 million payment from Azerbaijan's ruling family. The allega- tions turned out to be false or not backed by evidence: neither Caruana Galizia nor her confidants were able to supply proof of the allegation, and no material proof existed of banking transactions at Pilatus Bank intended for the Muscats. The exhaustive 1,500-page magisterial inquiry was only completed in 2018, with Bugeja concluding there was no evidence linking the Muscats to the Panama com- pany Egrant Inc, revealed in the Panama Papers scandal of 2016 by the same jour- nalist. Bugeja was drawn by lot to preside over the trial of the three men accused of having killed Caruana Galizia. Mus- cat and the Degiorgio brothers were ar- rested in December 2017 but have spent the past two years in and out of court as prosecutors presented evidence they had compiled against them, which they have challenged in various constitutional pro- ceedings. Bugeja, who has a hard-earned reputa- tion for gravitas and impartiality, could have felt unable to operate with the se- renity that other judges would have, giv- en the Egrant context. Additionally, his promotion to judge was attacked by a constitutional case filed by the NGO Repubblika, which wants to nullify the judicial appointments made at the start of 2019 before the Maltese gov- ernment implemented the recommen- dations by the Council of Europe's Ven- ice Commission on the independence of the judiciary. Police are becoming even more wary of attempts by the accused in the Caruana Galizia murder case to file rafts of consti- tutional cases, which could breed a suf- ficient "pre-trial publicity" with which to attack future jury selections. Vincent Muscat is seen here in the centre of the photo, with Alfred Degiorgio immediately to the right (in profile), and then George Degiorgio on the right 'Kohhu' out in the cold