© Provided by The GuardianPhotograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
The self-confessed killer of Daphne Caruana Galizia told a court on Thursday that he and two other men used binoculars and a telescope to follow the movements of the investigative journalist for days, before planting and triggering the car bomb that killed her in 2017.
© Photograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi/ReutersA memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia created by protesters outside court in Valleta in December 2019.
Speaking in the presence of journalists and Caruana Galizia's relatives in hall 22 of the law courts in Malta's capital, Valletta, Vincent Muscat gave the fullest account yet of the plot to murder the journalist.
Caruana Galizia's death in October 2017 was met with shock and outrage across Europe, and embroiled Malta's ruling Labour party in a political scandal that led to the resignation of the prime minister in 2019.
Seven men have either admitted to or been charged with complicity in the killing so far.
They include the property and energy tycoon Yorgen Fenech, who has pleaded not guilty to masterminding the murder, and Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver who confessed to being the middleman in the alleged contract killing.
Muscat, who like Theuma has turned state witness, said he met two other men accused of direct involvement in the murder, the brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, before Malta's June 2017 general election.
"Alfred Degiorgio came to me and told me there was a good job for me," he told the court on Thursday. He said the job was to kill Caruana Galizia and that a price of ?150,000 had been agreed.
"There were supposed to be three of us, myself and the Degiorgios," Muscat said. "The plan was to follow her steps and shoot her when the time was right. After the election, Theuma gave us the go-ahead. He gave us a ?30,000 advance in a brown leather bag. The sum was paid in ?50 notes. We took ?10,000 each and started work. Alfred and I followed her to Bidnija", the village where Caruana Galizia lived.
He said the three of them used binoculars and a telescope to observe Caruana Galizia's movements closely, and that they spent whole days watching her.
"We'd be sitting there on two bricks," he said. "It was uncomfortable and you'd get sore. I'd go and get food sometimes. I was buying three packs of Rothmans Red [cigarettes] a day. We disposed of the butts in a water bottle, so as not to leave any trace. We watched Daphne on her sofa with a laptop until 2am."
Muscat said the original plan was to shoot Caruana Galizia in her home: "The plan was to have Alfred shoot from under the tree. I would take him away from the scene in a stolen car. As soon as he shot, I would have to raise the gate so we could escape. George started coming up with excuses [such as] the rifle was too noisy."
The plan to shoot Caruana Galizia was eventually abandoned, he said, and the men opted to use a bomb instead: "George Degiorgio always wanted a bomb . a bomb you place it at night and you leave. Quieter, less panic."
Asked in court why the initial plan had been to shoot Caruana Galizia, Muscat replied: "There were no bombs at the time."
He said that having abandoned the rifle plan, the men began to discuss obtaining a bomb from Jamie Vella, who pleaded not guilty to complicity in the killing last month. Muscat said the explosive was sophisticated and "looked like it had been imported".
"It was a neat bomb," he said, adding that it had stainless steel face and an apparatus in which the SIM card would be inserted. "The bomb came with a mobile phone and had a switch," he said. "You send a particular message to the SIM card on the bomb. It would explode seconds later."
Before the hearing, Muscat apologised to Caruana Galizia's family. "I admitted all the charges against me and I have been sentenced," he said.
Caruana Galizia, a columnist and investigator whose blog on political corruption in Malta earned her a reputation as a "one woman WikiLeaks", was almost as well known in her home country as those she exposed in her scoops.
Theuma was granted a pardon in November 2019 to reveal what he knew about the murder and is living in a safe house under police protection. His evidence implicated Fenech, who was arrested in 2019 as he was attempting to leave Malta on his yacht. Fenech is in custody awaiting a decision on whether he will face trial.
The country's prime minister, Joseph Muscat - no relation to Vincent Muscat - was forced to resign in 2019 after allegations that members of his administration had tried to sabotage the police investigation.