Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542275
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 DECEMBER 2025 LOOKING BACK 2025 How the Maksar gang trial exposed Malta's darkest gangland chapter TEN years after some of the bloodiest episodes in Malta's re- cent underworld history, the six- week jury trial against four men accused of involvement in the murders of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and lawyer Car- mel Chircop finally brought ten- tative closure while laying bare the workings of the Maksar gang. The men on trial–brothers Robert Agius and Adrian Agius (the Tal-Maksar brothers), Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio– were accused of playing central roles in two of Malta's most no- torious killings. Prosecutors alleged that Robert Agius and Jamie Vella supplied the bomb used in Caruana Gal- izia's 2017 assassination, while Adrian Agius commissioned the 2015 shooting of Carmel Chir- cop, carried out with the com- plicity of Vella and Degiorgio. Chircop was shot dead as he opened his garage in Birkirkara, while Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb. The four men had been arrest- ed in 2021 after a major break- through: self-confessed hitman Vince Muscat (known as il- Koħħu) turned state witness af- ter reaching a plea deal related to Caruana Galizia's murder. As the prosecution's key witness, Muscat's testimony ultimately opened the path to formal charg- es and the long-awaited jury trial. The trial began on 24 April, more than four years after the arrests. Over six weeks, jurors heard testimony from 157 wit- nesses, reviewed CCTV footage, phone data, autopsy evidence and crime-scene reconstruction. The trial hinged on one star witness Central to the case was whether jurors could rely on Vince Mus- cat's testimony. On one hand, prosecutors contended that his descriptions matched forensic, digital and eyewitness evidence. Bullet trajectories, phone records tracing burner phones used in the plot, SIM-card location da- ta and statements from Carua- na Galizia's family all painted a picture broadly consistent with Muscat's account. But defence lawyers were re- lentless in their cross-examina- tion. They portrayed Muscat as a self-interested criminal whose testimony had shifted over time and whose memory for crucial details was hazy. They tried to cast doubt on the police for not pursuing alternative leads in the murder investigations while al- so arguing that the alleged mo- tive—a €750,000 debt Agius owed to Chircop–was insuffi- cient to warrant murder. As jurors heard the competing narratives, the judge reminded them it was their duty to decide whether Muscat's testimony was credible and whether the evi- dence supported the charges be- yond reasonable doubt. Site visits and the last man to see Daphne alive Throughout proceedings, ju- rors were shown graphic photos taken by the police's forensic team of the two murder victims. They were also taken on two visits to various sites connected with both murders: the Bidnija lookout, in the outskirts of Mo- sta, where the hitmen observed Caruana Galizia's house; the garage complex in Birkirkara, where Chircop was shot dead; the Marsa area where the weap- on used in the Chircop murder was dumped in the sea; garag- es in Naxxar and Santa Venera, used by the accused to store the bomb that killed Caruana Gali- zia. Jurors also heard testimony from farmer Francis Sant, who was the last person to see Caru- ana Galizia alive. Sant was travel- ling in his vehicle in the opposite direction of Caruana Galizia's, when he heard a small explosion, followed by screams and then a second much larger explosion that turned the journalist's car into a ball of fire. A former minister's testimony Ostensibly, the person with the highest profile to take the witness stand was former Labour minis- ter Chris Cardona. Cardona on- ly testified for a few minutes in relation to Vince Muscat's claim that the ex-minister had been in- volved in a 2015 aborted plot to kill Caruana Galizia. Muscat had claimed Cardona had approached the Degiorgio brothers through a third party, settling on a price of €150,000 to kill the journalist. She was an in- cessant critic of Cardona. Nine hours to decide While the trial itself took six weeks, the jury only needed nine hours of deliberation to convict the accused. The court found Robert Agius and Jamie Vella guilty of complicity in the mur- der of Caruana Galizia, and Adri- an Agius, Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio guilty of complicity in the murder of Carmel Chircop. Robert Agius was acquitted of the Chircop killing. Degiorgio had an outburst in the courtroom after the decision was read out. "I'll tell you where I got the bomb from," he shouted. "You've made a terrible mistake." The long shadow of gangland war The Maksar gang was notori- ous during the early 2010s for a wave of violent crimes. Adrian and Robert Agius were consid- ered untouchable. Their father was Raymond Agius, a suspected contraband cigarette smuggler with interests in construction and a car dealership. He was shot dead in 2008 in what is believed to have been a hit ordered by a rival smuggler. Police investigators believed that Agius senior's rivals thought he was tipping off the police about his competitors' smug- gling activities in exchange for protection. He was shot twice in the head by an assassin in a mo- torcycle helmet while at Butterfly Bar in Birkirkara. The murder re- mains unsolved. Despite years of gang violence, it was only after Caruana Gali- zia's assassination in 2017 that investigators managed to build the momentum to arrest and charge senior gang figures. NICOLE MEILAK nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt