Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1489031
14 NEWS Christmas Specials • Crime maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 DECEMBER 2022 Two jailed for 40 years over Daphne Caruana Galizia murder The standout story of the year is the Degiorgio brothers' sen- sational admission of guilt, on the first day of their trial by jury, to carrying out the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The two triggermen in the car bombing that claimed the life of the 53-year-old veteran jour- nalist pleaded guilty, just two days short of the fifth-year an- niversary of her assassination. The plea was made a mere nine hours into the start of their murder trial in October. George Degiorgio, 58, known as iċ-Ċiniż and his brother Al- fred Degiorgio, 56, known as il-Fulu, entered their admis- sion shortly after the midday break at 3pm, reversing their earlier plea of not guilty. They received a 40-year prison sen- tence. The third assassin, Vincent Muscat had received a 15-year sentence in 2021 after pleading guilty at a pre-trial stage. The man indicted for conspir- acy and complicity to commit the murder, millionaire heir Yorgen Fenech, remains in pre- ventive custody awaiting a date for his trial. In a connected case, Jamie Vella, who is indicted on charg- es relating to the procurement of the bomb, together with brothers Adrian and Robert Agius and George Degiorgio, unsuccessfully requested the judge slated to preside his fu- ture trial by jury to recuse her- self. HSBC Bank robber dishonours plea deal in embarrassing mis- calculation by AG In January, Vince Muscat 'il- Koħħu', currently serving time for the Caruana Galizia murder was due to go on trial for his part in the 2010 failed armed robbery of HSBC headquarters. The prosecution's star witness was Muscat's fellow conspira- tor Daren Debono 'it-Topo'. It emerged that right on the eve of the trial, Debono's lawyers had brokered a secret plea deal with the Attorney General, un- der which he would admit the charges and receive a 10-year sentence in return for his testi- mony against Muscat and oth- er conspirators. News that the public pros- ecutor had agreed to drop attempted murder charges against Debono, who had fired 65 shots at police officers dur- ing the heist, led the Malta Po- lice Union to express its disgust and memorably invite Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg and her staff to "the next gun fight, to experience what death looks like when it is so near". But despite receiving the re- duced sentence under the plea deal, once the sentence was confirmed, Debono simply refused to identify his accom- plices anyway, citing fears for his safety. He got 6 months for contempt of court. Wrong defendant charged in illegal employment case involv- ing Prime Minister's friend That same month, another magistrate slammed the bun- gled prosecution of Christian Borg, an associate and erst- while client of the Prime Min- ister, which had led to his ac- quittal on charges of illegally employing foreign workers. In a separate case, Borg is ac- cused, together with four oth- ers, of having kidnapped and threatened a man in January this year. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, being charged with kidnap- ping, recidivism as well as be- ing the subject of a criminal investigation into drug dealing and money laundering rack- ets was no obstacle to his car rental companies winning ten- ders by LESA (a week before his arrest in January 2022) and Transport Malta (April 2022), worth upwards of €300,000 in total. Nothing to see here, move along. Failure to inform suspect of arrest leads to drug trafficking suspect's acquittal Also in November, the arrest of Stefano Montebello on sus- picion of drug trafficking - he had been arrested while in pos- session of 46 sachets of assort- ed illegal narcotics - was de- clared illegal by a court after it emerged that he had not been informed that he was under ar- rest and read his rights as re- quired by law. In December, a judge de- clared the practice of filing separate criminal cases over in- dividual failures to pay alimony is "abusive and solely aimed at inflicting the maximum possi- ble damage on the accused." Failure to arrest ex-MGA official causes international embarrassment MGA compliance officer – turned freelance gaming consultant Iosif Galea was ar- rested in Italy in May, on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Germa- ny, which had somehow not been actioned in Malta, de- spite Germany sending three reminders. Italian police took Galea into custody upon his arrival on a holiday at Cellino San Marco with his partner and a group of friends that in- cluded former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife. A Frankfurt court subsequent- ly found Galea guilty of evading €1.7 million in taxes owed to the German State between May 2017 and December 2019 in his capacity as director of Tipbet Limited. Comparisons are odious and all that, but it's hard to ig- nore the fact that it took these two countries less than five months to conclude this case from extradition to convic- tion. According to a European Commission report published in May, financial crime cas- es spend five years in Malta's court doldrums, on average. Senior prosecutor found dead at home Lawyer Karl Muscat, an ex- perienced prosecutor at the Office of the Attorney General who had been handling sever- al high-profile criminal cases, including those against Yorgen Fenech, Ryan Schembri and Christian Borg, was found dead at his home on August 3rd. He was 43 years old. A magisterial inquiry into his death is cur- rently ongoing. Womens' rights, domestic vio- lence in the spotlight To say the 35 officers making up the Malta Police Force's Do- mestic Violence Unit had their It has been quite the year in court and us court journos have been busier than a termite in a sawmillI. Frankly, I don't remember ever finding it this hard to keep up with all the goings-on in court, but maybe it's an age thing. Or perhaps it's the sheer number of appeals, constitutional and spin-off cases. Hmmm. Jury's out on that one. Anyway.... Inside the law courts: a look back at 2022 MATTHEW AGIUS Senior Court Reporter Vince Muscat 'Il-Kohhu' Karl Muscat