The German police are only working the Panama Papers angle, Wiesbaden public prosecutor Oliver Kuhn has told The Malta Independent on Sunday, meaning that the German authorities have nothing to do with the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Kuhn was replying to questions sent by this newspaper after police sources in Malta claimed the German prosecutor had failed to inform the Maltese police that he had been given access to Caruana Galizia’s laptops. They also claimed that he had not informed Magistrate Anthony Vella, who is leading the murder inquiry.

Instead, the Wiesbaden prosecutor informed Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, who is leading the Egrant Inquiry and, according to the same sources, did so a full month after he had taken possession of the slain journalist’s laptops.

The sources said officers at Europol were also ‘livid’ at the fact that the Malta police, who have jurisdiction over the murder case, were not informed. This, the sources added, was very different to how things were done when Germany had shared information related to the Panama Papers in the past.

When asked about this, Kuhn said: “The public prosecutor’s office of Wiesbaden is officially involved only in the international legal assistance in the case of the Panama Papers. From this, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja was the only known official contact. So we informed him about the equipment.”

 

Sensitive data

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb attack metres away from her home in Bidnija on 16 October of last year. At first, it had been reported that her laptop was destroyed in the fire, but this newspaper had later revealed that the laptop was not in the car at the time of the explosion.

A few days after the assassination, the police had taken possession of a laptop, but it later emerged that this was an old device that the journalist had not used in two years. Two laptops and three hard drives that Caruana Galizia was using at the time of the murder were given to the German federal criminal police, the BKA, on 27 April.

According to reports, the equipment was handed over by a ‘representative’ of the family. This newspaper is informed that the equipment was handed over to the German police by a German lawyer. The Caruana Galizia family had said that it entrusted the equipment to the German police, rather than to Maltese investigators, because they do not trust the Maltese police.

Times of Malta, which forms part of the Daphne Project, had reported in May that the Maltese courts and police could request a copy of the data found on the laptops from the German police.

However, Oliver Kuhn told The Malta Independent on Sunday earlier this month that no such request had been made.

Kuhn said he could not answer questions on which information Germany would be willing to share with Malta, and how the German police would make sure that Caruana Galizia’s sources are protected, because the German authorities were still examining the data.

It is believed that, apart from data related to the Panama Papers and other political scandals in Malta, the equipment might also hold tens of thousands of documents leaked to Daphne Caruana Galizia by a whistleblower from Electrogas – the consortium that built and now operates the new Delimara power station.

It is also believed that some of the information could help investigators solve the murder case. While three men stand charged with the murder, the identity of the individual or individuals who commissioned the assassination remains unknown. The family’s reluctance to hand over the laptops to the Maltese police was exploited by one of the murder suspects, Alfred Degiorgio, who claims that the laptop might hold information pertinent to his legal defence. He has claimed that his right to a fair trial was being breached by investigators’ failure to obtain the last laptop used by the murdered journalist.

 

Courts would need ‘original’ data

A police source who spoke to this newspaper said that if and when Germany shared the data with Malta, the original files would have to be presented, since copies cannot be considered as admissible evidence (even if it could help with the investigation). This would mean that the actual laptops would have to be brought back to Malta and handed over to the Law Courts.

According to the sources, representatives of the German police would also have to testify in a Maltese court, to confirm that the laptops had not been tampered with.

The source said other issues can arise, including the fact that the data will have reached the investigators at a very late stage – months after the three accused were charged in court.

This newspaper asked Attorney General Peter Grech for his position regarding the laptops sent to the German police and if the laptops could now be admitted as evidence. A spokesperson said that since the subjects in question were bound by at least one magisterial inquiry the AG does not feel he should comment on the matter.

This newspaper also sent questions to Europol, asking it why the Malta police were not informed about the laptops and whether it would intervene. A spokesperson simply said: “Europol was and is still supporting Maltese authorities in the case, and therefore it is not for us to comment on your questions.”

The Malta Police Force has yet to reply to questions, sent over three weeks ago, asking why it had made no request for the information found in the laptops.