The court has blocked an attempt by one of Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder suspects to stop the FBI from testifying in the compilation of evidence on Tuesday.

In her judgment, Madam Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland described the attempt by Alfred Degiorgio, known as il-Fulu, as "frivolous and vexatious" and based on a stretched argument. 

The crux of the issue stemmed from the fact that the foreign experts had been working in tandem with IT expert Martin Bajada, who had been appointed by the court to gather the electronic data likely to prove crucial to the prosecution's case.

During a hearing last week it emerged that Dr Bajada had been appointed a day after the journalist's assassination on October 16 and his findings had led to the arrest of 10 suspects and the subsequent arraignment of three of them, namely Mr Degiorgio and his brother George, and Vince Muscat.

The FBI were roped in later and it was clear that they had collaborated with Dr Bajada since all decrees relative to the inquiry were issued upon their joint request, Mr Degiorgio's lawyer William Cuschieri argued.

As expert, Dr Bajada was the lunga manus of the court which relied strongly upon his reports, Dr Cuschieri continued, adding that like other court officials, the expert was expected to be of good moral conduct.

Since, in the past, Dr Bajada had been convicted before a London court for theft and fraud, his appointment as court expert has often been disputed.

“Dr Bajada should never have been appointed in the first place and should never have been allowed to work alongside the FBI experts,” Dr Cuschieri insisted, pointing out that his client’s rights would be prejudiced if the foreign experts were allowed to testify next week.

The arguments had been rebutted by lawyer Maurizio Cordina from the AG’s office who pointed out that the case was just “a desperate manoeuvre by Mr Degiorgio to delay, if not block, the proceedings in his regard.”

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