Simon Busuttil Calls For Sacking Of Minister Carmelo Abela Due To Bank Robbery Accusation lovinmalta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lovinmalta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
An excerpt from a classified intelligence report about a criminal gang linked to the execution of Daphne Caruana Galizia has been found by investigators on murder suspect Yorgen Fenech’s phone, sources have said.
Information was exchanged between Europol and the Maltese authorities in a bid to bolster investigations into the suspected gang and identify gaps in intelligence about their criminal activities.
A photograph from a section of the report, naming gang members suspected to have supplied and planted the bomb used to murder the journalist, was sent to Fenech in March 2019, the source said.
Vince Muscat
The report identified brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, Maksar brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, their associate Jamie Vella and self-confessed murderer Vince Muscat as all forming part of the same criminal gang.
Updated 1pm with Caruana Galizia statement
Two men charged in connection with journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia s murder have questioned why they have yet to hear back about their request for presidential pardons.
In a statement published in both English and Maltese, brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio asked what was holding the authorities back from acknowledging receipt of their requests.
The brothers have claimed to have knowledge about a former minister implicated in the murder, as well as the involvement of a sitting minister in another crime.
Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi on Friday hinted the sitting minister could be Carmelo Abela. Abela vehemently denies any role in the foiled heist of HSBC in 2010 and has filed a libel suit against Azzopardi.
Updated April 10
PN MP Jason Azzopardi is claiming that Minister Carmelo Abela allegedly aided the mastermind behind the attempted HSBC bank heist for a €300,000 payment from the loot.
The accusation comes days after Abela denied any involvement in the 2010 heist that ended in a violent shoot-out, describing any links to him as stories, fairytales and inventions .
On Friday Abela rebutted the claim and filed a libel suit against the PN MP, saying he categorically denied Azzopardi s lies.
Abela said he had also taken a sworn affidavit denying the claims and said the PN was in cahoots with criminals.
Last month Azzopardi claimed, using parliamentary privilege, that the alleged hitmen involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia were given false keys to an HSBC bank branch and CCTV footage by a sitting minister.
Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspects George and Alfred Degiorgio are to receive access to testimony their former co-accused Vince Muscat gave to a magistrate leading an inquiry into the 2017 murder.
A court ruled on Friday that the brothers are entitled to see what Muscat, known as
il-Koħħu, told an inquiring magistrate about the murder. But the court also found that they have no valid claim to copies of statements Muscat gave to the police.
The decree given by judge Edwina Grima paves the way for Muscat to face cross-examination by a lawyer representing the Degiorgio brothers in the case.