A fresh request for bail has been filed by two of the men allegedly behind the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, just over a year since their arrest.
Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio filed an application before the First Hall, Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, claiming that the continued denial of their release from preventive arrest amounted to a breach of their fundamental rights. They requested bail by way of an effective remedy.
The two were arrested on December 4, 2017 and arraigned the following day, alongside Vincent Muscat, over their alleged involvement in the murder of Ms Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb on October 16, 2017, a few metres outside her Bidnija home.
Since then several attempts by the Degiorgios to obtain bail have been repeatedly turned down by the courts.
A request for bail in separate money-laundering proceedings, which had kicked off against the Degiorgio brothers and George Degiorgio’s partner, Anca Adelina Pop, in June 2018, had been successfully upheld by the Magistrates’ Court under stringent conditions, only to be subsequently revoked by the Criminal Court upon appeal by the Attorney General.
All the courts have so far expressed themselves in such a manner as to appear “totally averse to the granting of bail”, the applicants argued, adding that this stance adopted by the criminal courts “did not in any way follow the doctrine of the constitutional courts and the European Court of Human Rights on the granting of bail.”
No court appeared willing to strike a balance between the applicants’ right to freedom of arrest and the “fears although hypothetical” underlying the AG’s objections to bail, the application stated.
Even the State was at fault by failing to introduce the system of electronic tagging which would facilitate the attainment of such a balance, the applicants continued, further noting that the accused did not enjoy the same right to appeal decisions on bail as did the AG.
All this was giving rise to a situation whereby the applicants were being denied of equality of arms, their right to a fair hearing, protection against arbitrary arrest or detention and their fundamental rights and freedoms, the court was told.
For this reason, the applicants requested the court to declare a breach of rights and to provide an effective remedy by granting bail, as well as adequate compensation accordingly.
Lawyer William Cuschieri signed the application.