One of the men accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has doubled down on claims that he is not receiving adequate medical care while behind bars.

George Degiorgio filed a judicial letter claiming that failure to be provided with adequate medical care amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. He had already filed a similar letter against the prison director three months ago. 

George Degiorgio.

In his latest letter, Mr Degiorgio claimed that “no concrete steps” had been taken since he had filed his first one on December 4, in which he had noted that he was not receiving treatment for “persistent and unbearable pain in his shoulder”.

Although he had informed the prison authorities of his trusted medical consultant, prison authorities had simply given him pain killers, which “masked the pain for a while but did not in any way constitute the required care”.

The pain continued to develop and his condition was worsening, Mr Degiorgio’s letter read.

His lawyer William Cuschieri noted that this was happening while his client was in custody and totally dependent on prison authorities. This amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment which breached his client’s fundamental rights, he said.

Mr Degiorgio, alongside his brother Alfred and Vincent Muscat, is currently facing criminal proceedings over the trio’s alleged involvement in a car bomb assassination of Ms Caruana Galizia on October 16, 2017.