The servers hosting the blog content and other data belonging to slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have been handed in to the Magistrate Anthony Vella, who is conducting the inquiry into the 16 October assassination by car bomb.
Sources close to the investigation have informed this newspaper that the servers’ data will be analysed by foreign investigators who are currently in Malta lending their expertise to the investigation.
It is not known how much information investigators hope to garner from the servers that host Caruana Galizia’s blog - Running Commentary; Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Notebook. The Magistrate may even be interested in ensuring that its contents are preserved intact for the investigation’s duration, given the fact that many of the investigation’s leads obviously centre around her writings.
In addition to the servers that hosted www.daphnecaruanagalizia.com, it is also understood that investigators may also have access to Caruana Galizia’s laptop computer, which had not been found at the scene of the crime.
Caruana Galizia’s badly damaged smartphone was, however, retrieved from the site and it is also being examined. Caruana Galizia used to prefer communicating by WhatsApp, and encrypted messaging service, and sources said that it was unlikely any data could be retrieved from the app given its high security encryption.
Sources close to the newsroom said that as part of the investigation her SIM card has been cloned with the help of mobile service providers in similar cases. In fact, WhatsApp eerily shows Caruana Galizia as having been active on the app last Sunday evening.