Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1368118
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 5 MAY 2021 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS MURDERED lawyer, Carmel Chircop's widow, overheard her husband pressing Adrian Agius to repay a €600,000 debt to him - part of the fallout of the More Supermarkets debacle - sometime before he was shot dead, a court has heard. She testified in the case against Robert Agius, Adrian Agius, George Degiorgio and Jamie Vella - the compilation of evidence over the murders of Carmel Chircop and Daphne Caruana Galizia. Mary Rose Chircop told mag- istrate Caroline Farrugia Fren- do about a chance meeting with Agius at a coffee shop in Naxxar. Agius had been sitting at a differ- ent table, and her husband had gone to sit with him. "I heard my husband say, 'So Adrian, are you going to start passing on the pay- ments?'" On another occasion, the Chircops were on holiday in Italy, and she heard her husband on the phone with Agius, saying, "Adri- an, you have already skipped some payments…'" she said. Adrian Agius had signed a con- stitution of debt with Chircop, over a €750,000 loan to Agius' company. It was suggested in court that Agius was insisting that the private contractors had been null as the woman had not been present during the signing of the constitution of a debt. Carmel Chircop had not been arguing, and his tone was calm, she said. "He wasn't fighting with him. My husband's voice was not loud. He didn't shout much." Chircop, who was shot twice in the chest in a Birkirkara garage complex, had not been paid the money he was owed, she said. His heirs eventually settled the case out of court for €165,000. "We wanted the matter to be settled at all costs once and for all," the wid- ow said. A female police constable told the court that after being arrest- ed, Agius had explained that the money was part of a promise- of-sale for a warehouse. His villa was security on the loan. He said that payments had been made, but there were €600,000 pending. Chircop was chasing him with phone calls and messages. At a point, Chircop had told him: "You didn't pay again, now the Villa at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq is mine." Agius said that he had been in It- aly at the time of the murder. This was confirmed by his call profiles, said the officer. Agius also told the police that the money was part of a promise-of- sale that Chircop had entered in- to, connected to More Supermar- ket directors Ryan Schembri and Etienne Cassar. Agius had denied any connection with the murder. He had told the police that he "felt he was a victim of what had hap- pened after Schembri fled Malta" and that neither Cassar nor Agius himself owed any money. Inspector Kurt Zahra also testi- fied, giving his, now familiar, ac- count of the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Gal- izia who was killed in 2017 with a bomb allegedly supplied by the Agius brothers. After Chircop murder, wife settled for €165,000 payment from Agius over €600,000 debt Lawyer Carmel Chircop was shot twice in the chest in a Birkirkara garage complex