The Maltese man who was hired as a security guard to keep Panama Papers journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia informed before she was killed in October 2017, told a court that he and her killers were arguing over whether to kill her with a remote rifle – they finally decided it was “too noisy” – before settling on a bomb, because it was “cleaner”.
Vincent Muscat “il-Kohju”, who is serving a 15-year sentence after pleading guilty to his role in the murder of Galicia, apologized to his family before his five-hour testimony on Thursday, according to The Times of Malta and other media reports. “I admitted all the charges against me and I was convicted,” he told the court.
He then painted a picture of the plot to kill her accurately, including how he and fellow defendant Alfred Degiorgio spent their time watching the journalist from a distance in the cafes and through the windows of his Maltese home using a telescope with autofocus. “We would be sitting there on two bricks. It was uncomfortable and you would be sick, “he said. “I would sometimes go for food. I bought three packets of Rothmans Red a day. I removed the buttocks in a bottle of water, so as not to leave any traces. I watched Daphne on her couch with a laptop until 2 in the morning. “
Seven people have been charged with murder and complicity, including Maltese tycoon Yorgen Fenech, of whom Muscat says he plotted. Fenech, who was arrested trying to sail to Italy, denies the accusation.
Muscat described how he took the job to kill her. “Alfred Degiorgio came to me and told me it was a good job for me,” he told the court. “The plan was to follow in her footsteps and shoot her when the time was right.”
He then described how he and the others were paid an advance of 30,000 euros, in notes of 50 euros. “We took 10,000 euros each and started working. Alfred and I followed her to Bidnija, ”he said, referring to her home village. Then she said the initial plan was to kill her in her house.
At one point, they planned to execute her execution with a sniper rifle with a telescopic sight on it. Alfred Degiorgio was ready to pull the trigger, but his brother George Degiorgio canceled the shot, telling the men it was “too noisy” and they would probably be caught. “A bomb will be easier to install, much cleaner,” they decided.
“The plan was for Alfred to shoot from under the tree,” he said, according to Maltese media reports. “I would take him out of the scene in a stolen car. As soon as he fired, I should have raised the gate so that we could escape. “
Muscat also named several people close to the inner circle of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whom he said ordered the coup, including former Maltese economy minister Chris Cardona and Muscat’s former chief of staff. Keith Schembri. Muscat, the admitted killer, has nothing to do with former Prime Minister Muscat.
During the testimony, the sons of Galicia posted live some of the awful details. “Alfred Degiorgio received a small bottle of water, filled it with petrol and tied it to the bomb to make its impact even more devastating,” Matthew Caruana Galizia wrote on Twitter. “It was made of stainless steel, sophisticated, clearly foreign made … It had a slot for a SIM card.”
The two men had a weapons depot in the car to escape. “I had guns in the car,” he said. “There was a 9mm automatic that took a 16-round magazine and an AK-47 in the car in case I encountered a roadblock.”
Then, while listening to the journalist’s sons and husband, Muscat described the bomb as so powerful that it sent his car off the road into a nearby field and literally tore his body to pieces. “Six inches thick, five inches wide and three inches long,” he said, using his hands to show the approximate size. “It was a neat bomb, it had a stainless steel face.”
He went on to say that he has a SIM card slot to control high-precision detonation. “The bomb came with a mobile phone. It had a switch. Send a special message on the SIM card from the bomb “, he said. “He had about 500g of explosives.”
He then added that it was so important for the people who hired them to make sure he did not survive that they reinforced the bomb. “I attached a bottle of gasoline if it wasn’t strong enough,” he said.
They also “got” a car identical to Galicia’s, so they could practice opening the rear window and inserting the bomb under the driver’s seat. He also said that Alfred Degiorgio seems to have at one point been dealing with two groups that both wanted to hire them to kill Galicia. “Once, Alfred told me that Cardona had sent me a message,” he said, referring to the former economy minister. “He mentioned the 150,000 euros. He said there were two groups … they quoted the same price. ”
The night before she was killed, Muscat said she was called to pick up the bomb in a garage in a Valletta suburb. Galicia had left their car outside that night, rather than in the garage, giving them the perfect opportunity to plant the deadly explosive. They installed the bomb at midnight, carrying it in a backpack to her car.
Then they met again at 6 a.m. the morning of the murder and waited a few hours before she came out. “Census, she’s coming out,” Degiorgio told me … but she’s back, “Muscat said. “Soon, she reappeared, as if she had forgotten something.”
Then Galicia got in the car and went out of her alley and down a winding road. They detonated the bomb just before the road fell, Muscat confessed. “We were returning to the car. I did not hear anything, “Muscat told the court. “Alfred said, ‘I don’t think it exploded.’ I looked back and saw black smoke. I swear, honor, I didn’t hear anything from there. I only heard a small sound. ”
Muscat then told the court that he was shocked by the national and international attention the crime had received. He said he had no idea how important she was or the impact of what they had done.