A request for bail filed by the three men who stand charged with murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia was turned down today by Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit. 

The magistrate, after hearing the submissions made on Tuesday by the defence lawyers and the prosecution, decided that there were various reasons to refuse bail.

She cited the serious nature of the charges, the protection of public  order, the risk that the accused could commit new offences and the risk that they could abscond, especially in view of the fact that they are facing a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The court said that the fact that the accused, if found guilty, could be jailed for life meant that the granting of bail was not an “automatic right.”

Alfred Degorgio, aka il-fulu, his brother George Degorgio, known as ic-Ciniz, and Vince Muscat, known as il-kohhu, were charged with the murder in early December 2017, after they were arrested at a shed in Marsa. They have been kept in custody since and are always brought to court under heavy armed police presence. They have pleaded not guilty to killing the journalist with a car bomb on 16 October. 

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit has already ruled that there is enough evidence for the three to stand trial.

On Tuesday, lawyer Martin Fenech, who is representing Muscat, insisted that the case had been “blown out f proportion.”