Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1386209
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 JUNE 2021 NEWS FIVE new cases of COVID-19 were registered on Tuesday, the health ministry has said. 631,446 doses of the COV- ID-19 vaccine have been ad- ministered until Monday. Of these, 290,280 people are fully vaccinated. Total recoveries stand at 30,148, while total cases regis- tered stand at 30,595. There are 27 active COV- ID-19 cases. No deaths were registered in the last 24-hours. The total number of deaths is 420. 1,649 swab tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, bring- ing the total number of swabs to 968,012. COVID-19 Five new COVID-19 cases registered MATTHEW AGIUS GEORGE Degiorgio and Alfred Degior- gio have filed two cases attacking the decision to refuse their request for a presidential pardon. However, during the first sitting, there was a heated debate on whether the cas- es could proceed or not. The brothers are charged with mur- dering journalist Daphne Caruana Gal- izia. Lawyer Stefano Filletti, representing the President George Vella, raised the issue that the law did not allow this type of suit against the president. The law clearly stated that "no civil ac- tion can be taken against the President of Malta for acts done in the perfor- mance of his duties". Given that suits could not be filed against the Presi- dent of Malta, it was requested that the Courts declare the President of Malta as non-suited. State Advocate Chris Soler highlighted the fact that several preliminary pleas were raised, which had to be addressed before proceeding with the case, among them the fact that the decision to refuse a presidential pardon was not an admin- istrative decision which at law could be challenged in Court. Lawyer William Cuschieri, appearing for the Degiorgios, declared that these were tactics to delay the case and declared that in this case, he did not have much ev- idence to produce. However, he declared his willingness to review his position with respect to the President of Malta. The Court invited Cuschieri to review his position and, during the next sitting, ordered the State Advocate to present its evidence on the preliminary pleas. On Monday, the government advised Vella against granting a pardon to the Degiorgio brothers for a second time. On 26 April, the Degiorgio brothers had sent another letter to Vella, making a second request for a pardon after the first one had been rejected. "That the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth are revealed, and all those involved are brought to jus- tice" does not only interest the Degior- gios but is in "everybody's interest," the brothers had said in their letter. The Degiorgio brothers claim to have information implicating a former min- ister as a mastermind in the Caruana Galizia murder, as well as information about other serious crimes. They also claim that a sitting minister was in- volved in the HSBC heist of 2010. Degiorgio brothers file multiple cases over rejection of pardon request The accused Alfred Degiorgio and George Degiorgio during a site visit in Bidnija in the early stages of the compilation of evidence