Vince Muscat confirms that Daphne’s killers knew about police raid ‘two, three weeks’ beforehand

Convicted hitman Vince Muscat told jurors on Monday that the men who carried out Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination knew “two, three weeks” in advance that police were planning to raid the Marsa potato shed on 4 December 2017.

Muscat, who is serving a 15-year sentence for his role in the murder, was testifying in the trial by jury against Yorgen Fenech, who stands charged with complicity in Caruana Galizia’s voluntary homicide and criminal association. Fenech denies the charges.

Under examination by state prosecutor Godwin Cini, Muscat described how he and brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio began expecting the police operation weeks before it happened.

The three men were arrested during the December 2017 raid on the Marsa potato shed, less than two months after Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in Bidnija.

Muscat said Alfred Degiorgio told him there were rumours that police were going to arrest his brother, George. He said the information appeared serious enough for the men to discuss whether George Degiorgio should board a catamaran to Sicily to see if police were tracking them.

He said that in the weeks leading up to the raid, he saw the brothers often speaking to each other and then changing the subject whenever he approached them. Muscat said this made him worry that one of them had made a mistake.

Asked whether he was aware of any dates related to the arrests, Muscat said: “All I knew was that the police were going to pick us up on 4 December.”

“We knew about the raid for a while, maybe two, three weeks before that,” he added.

Cini asked what the men did with that information. Muscat said they began cleaning up anything that could be used as evidence against them.

Muscat told the court that, during this time period, he once saw Melvin Theuma, the middleman, at the potato shed speaking to Alfred Degiorgio. He said he could not hear what they were saying, but Alfred Degiorgio later told him that Theuma had received the same tip-off.

Theuma was granted a pardon, as well as Muscat himself, to tell all about the murder and several other crimes.

Muscat also said Alfred Degiorgio later asked him to drive him to meet Tony l-Iblaħ, identified in a previous sitting as Anthony Sammut. Muscat said he waited for about 30 minutes and felt they looked worried while they were talking, but Degiorgio did not tell him what was actually discussed.

He also recalled driving Degiorgio to a bar near Siġġiewi after the murder because they were looking for disgraced former economy minister Chris Cardona. Muscat said Degiorgio wanted to know whether they would really be arrested on 4 December. They did not find Cardona there, Muscat said.

Muscat testified that George Degiorgio later complained that the €150,000 fee for the murder was not enough considering all the police attention they were expecting to deal with.

On the morning of 4 December, Muscat said he and Alfred Degiorgio went to the potato shed early and waited.

“As far as I know, we knew they were coming early, at about 8am. We were waiting for them,” Muscat said.

He said he did not expect to be charged and believed he would only be arrested. “If I knew, I wouldn’t have gone there,” he said.

Muscat said that after their arraignment, he was held in prison with the Degiorgio brothers in a division where they were only allowed out once a day.

He later told the court that the Degiorgios contacted Theuma from prison using a phone, and that he warned them to be careful because the calls could be tapped. Muscat’s warning proved prescient, as the lead investigator on the case has already explained to the jury that these calls were, in fact, being tapped.

The trial continues.