One of the three men charged with the car bomb murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia is claiming a breach of his right to a fair hearing, claiming the police acted on "a mere unfounded supposition."

George Degiorgio filed a constitutional application wherein he claimed to have been the victim of a frame-up by the prosecution. 

Degiorgio, known as iċ-Ċiniż, was identified by the police as the person who allegedly remotely triggered the bomb from his yacht, the Maia, just outside Grand Harbour.

In his application, Mr Degiorgio noted that the prosecution had requested the court to nominate experts to identify all the vessels which had entered and left Grand Harbour between 2.30pm and 3.30pm on 16 October 2017, when the journalist was assassinated in Bidnija. 

But when questioned in court, the expert had declared he could not fully confirm that footage he was shown was that of the Maia. 

The police also had no evidence that he was actually on the yacht, Mr Degiorgio said. 

Read: Caruana Galizia murder case focuses on sealed evidence, boat footage, phone data

Mr Degiorgio’s lawyer, William Cuschieri said he was thereby asking the court to declare that his client’s right to a fair hearing had been breached as the police were fishing for evidence to justify his arrest.

It was evident that the prosecution not only did not have proof that Degiorgio was on board the particular vessel, but did not even have proof that it was the particular vessel that appeared on the footage.

This was not a case where the court needed to appoint a technical expert as “here we are talking about a boat that is unrecognisable”, Dr Cuschieri said.

He dismissed the request as “nothing but a suggestive question” so that the experts confirm the pretext upon which the accused was arrested.

“The behaviour and request of the prosecution, which took place now around 10 months after his arraignment under arrest on a supposition without any evidence, is nothing but an attempt at a frame up in his [Degiorgio’s] regard,” concluded the lawyer.