Sensitive documents presented in a constitutional case filed by one of the men accused of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia have been struck from the case, with the judge saying they should never have been presented in the first place.

“I do not even want these documents in my hands,” Mr Justice Silvio Meli said, adding that he could even report the matter to the police since this possibly amounted to a breach of criminal procedural law.

The documents form part of the proces verbal related to the murder inquiry which is still underway, and are believed to include phone logs of calls made in the Bidnija area on the day of the murder, including data of third-party citizens totally unrelated to the case.

They were presented in the constitutional case by Alfred Degiorgio’s lawyer William Cuschieri, in a case Mr Degiorgio has filed to have an IT and handwriting expert removed from the case.

Lawyer Victoria Buttigieg from the Attorney General’s office told the court that the documents presented had only been made available to the parties in the murder case and could not be exhibited in a public case such as the constitutional one.

To do so, Dr Buttigieg added, Dr Cuschieri must have first sought proper authorisation from the Magistrate concerned after informing the Attorney General.

“He must go through the proper channels,” Dr Buttigieg stressed, her argument supported by the lawyers assisting the Caruana Galizia family who had been authorized to intervene in this constitutional case.

Mr Justice Meli decreed that since the said documents formed part of a criminal investigation which was still ongoing, they were to be removed from the records of this constitutional case.

It was the second time the applicant’s lawyer fell foul of the court, with the Judge having earlier told him he was doing a “disservice to justice” by having summoned a magistrate’s deputy registrar to testify about events recorded in the acts of the compilation.

“In nineteen years I have never seen this. This is unprecedented,” Mr Justice Meli remarked.

IT expert testifies

Earlier in the sitting, IT expert Martin Bajada testified about his qualifications.
Mr Degiorgio, known as ‘il-Fulu’, wants Dr Bajada taken off the murder investigation, saying his presence violates his right to a fair hearing.

Dr Bajada continues to enjoy the trust of several members of the Maltese judiciary despite having been convicted of theft and fraud by a British court back in 1993 and in spite of a 2016 pronouncement by the Maltese Superior Court of Appeal upholding a respondent’s request to have the expert’s evidence struck off from the records of the case “in the general interest of the administration of justice”.

On Friday morning, Dr Bajada explained while testifying that following that 2016 judgment he had immediately drawn the attention of the courts to it and asked for direction regarding cases in which he had been handed briefs as handwriting expert.

“Yet, after consulting the parties involved in those cases, the presiding members of the judiciary all confirmed my appointment as handwriting expert,” Dr Bajada declared.

Asked by Mr Degiorgio’s lawyer, William Cuschieri, to specify his qualifications, Dr Bajada replied that he was a Fellow of the English Institution of Analysts and Programmers, presenting a copy of his full qualifications to support his statement.

Attorney General Peter Grech also took the witness stand to explain why Dr Bajada was still being appointed as court expert in spite of the pronouncement by the Superior Court of Appeal.

Dr Grech explained that whenever presented with a case wherein Dr Bajada was to serve as expert, the parties would be asked whether they had any objection in this regard and if not, to declare that they would not be raising any objection at a later stage in proceedings.

If this was not done, the court would be asked to substitute the expert. “I am informed that there is just one case where Bajada was asked to be removed,” Dr Grech said.

In other cases which proceeded to the Criminal Court, to avoid this issue being raised during a trial by jury, the AG would request that another expert be appointed to review Dr Bajada’s work. “Not that Bajada’s work be removed from the acts of the proceedings, but that a second opinion be sought,” Dr Grech specified.

The case continues in October.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Therese Comodini Cachia and Eve Borg Costanzi are assisting the Caruana Galizia family.