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MW 20 December 2017

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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2017 News 7 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In- spector Arnaud was the first witness to testify and his ac- count shed a great deal of light on the investigation and the crime itself. Caruana Galizia's car The Peugeot car Daphne Caruana Galizia was driving at the time had been leased four months before. Her son Matthew Caruana Galizia had occasionally used the car in the period. Matthew was the last person to have parked the car outside the gate of the family's Bid- nija home. Investigators dismantled an identical model of the car to determine whether any de- bris collected from the crime scene was extraneous. This led the police to dis- cover the presence of an elec- tronic board, which was part of the SIM card dock on the explosive device. The 'small white car' A person who spoke to the police had noticed a "small white car" frequenting a particular area at Tat-Targa Battery, part of the Victoria Lines. On the day of the murder the white car was there but unlike previous occasions the driver was not inside. Police noticed that next to where the car used to be parked, part of a wall had col- lapsed and led to a place with a birds-eye view of Bidnija. Forensic experts combed the area for any clues, includ- ing cigarette butts. After the murder, the car was never seen again Given that Caruana Gali- zia's movements were irregu- lar the police concluded that it was possible that someone was shadowing her move- ments. The detonator Location data from the Bid- nija area led the police to home in on a number that re- ceived an SMS at 2.58pm and stopped broadcasting imme- diately thereafter. The number was linked to an electronic device normally found in appliances that can be activated remotely, which was used as the detonator of the car bomb. The device was switched on in the Bidnija area at around 2am on 16 October. It re- mained in a static location for the day until it received an SMS and disappeared. The killer SMS The SMS that triggered the bomb was sent from a Nokia 105 mobile phone connected to the cell tower near the YMCA in Valletta, Arnaud said. This phone was switched on, on the day of the explo- sion and started broadcasting from a cell ID near the Curia. The signal moved to Pace- ville, Senglea, Rinella, Zabbar and Xghajra as it bounced from cell towers north and south of the country every hour The cell towers all faced seawards and this led police to suspect the mobile phone was on a boat circling the is- land. The number linked to the detonator and the number that sent the SMS had been set up within minutes of each other in November 2016 and had only corresponded with each other on three occa- sions. The pleasure boats The Degiorgio brothers both own pleasure boats. CCTV footage showed that one of them – the Maya – was spotted leaving the Grand Harbour at around 8am be- fore turning north. At the time the killer SMS was sent, the Maya was spot- ted under the Great Siege Bell area, where it stopped for a few minutes before heading towards Marsa. The top up call The Secret Service had in- tercepted a call from George Degiorgio's phone, asking the person on the other end to top him up with €5. The person was unable to do so and Degiorgio called another person, asking the same question "Don't take long, if you can." This person complied and, minutes later, topped up the number identi- fied by George Degiorgio. Police obtained call profiles relating to George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat. All mobile numbers in- volved were activated within 20 minutes of each other – two were activated in Senglea and the third in Hamrun. The case continues George Degiorgio, Ic-Ciniz, is represented by legal aid law yer Marc Sant; Alfred Degiorgio, il-Fulu, is repre- sented by privately engaged law yers, Martha Mifsud and William Cuschieri; Vince Muscat, il-Kohhu, is repre- sented by legal aid law yer Martin Fenech. Police Inspectors Keith Ar- naud and Kurt Zahra are prosecuting. The Caruana Galizia family is represented parte civile by lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Therese Comodi- ni Cachia and Eve Borg Cos- tanzi. Investigators identified electronic board on explosive device after dismantling car like Daphne's Sketch of the accused in the dock this morning by perit Eric Gerardi

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