Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was being monitored by Malta secret services before she was assassinated on 2017, two men who admitted to murdering her have said in a letter sent to the media.

“We are not society’s monsters, as they’re depicting us to be,” Alfred and George Degiorgio wrote in a letter they made public and in which they made a series of unsubstantiated claims involving politicians and public figures. 

The two brothers were sentenced to 40 years in jail after they pleaded guilty to their role as hitmen in the car bomb that killed Caruana Galizia outside her Bidnija home on 16 October 2017. 

Soon after the sentencing, they started legal proceedings to request a retrial, claiming that they admitted to the crime to avoid a life term since they were not afforded a fair trial.

In their statement, which is undated but is making the rounds on the social media, the Degiorgios claimed that they were the “victims” of prominent people who controlled and manipulated them. 

“We ended up being used by various people including former ministers Carmelo Abela and Chris Cardona, lawyers like David Gatt and high-ranking members of the police corps and army.”

The police failed to act on information they provided about these people, the two brothers claimed. 

They said that the government’s offer of a €1 million prize for information about the murder was “farcical”, claiming it was nothing but a ploy to ensure that “whoever was truly involved, would be made out as being a virgin.”

“Whoever was granted a pardon twisted the truth and we believe that he is being coached,” they said, an apparent reference to self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma. 

The Degiorgios said they were ready to supply first-hand information about former minister Chris Cardona, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, ex-Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar as well as Secret Services officials, certain lawyers and persons of trust. 

In what is a new revelation, the Degiorgios said they knew that Caruana Galizia was being monitored by the secret service before her murder. The police were told not to go anywhere near her house at the time, the Degiorgios said.

They described lead murder investigator superintendent Keith Arnaud as “a great friend” of Keith Schembri and said he was prosecuting people who “had no involvement in the case”.

The Degiorgios said they were also willing to provide information about serious crimes including a botched HSBC heist in 2010, in which prominent people were involved.

The brothers said they had also given information about three bombings which had taken place between 2013 and 2017.

In a final plea, they asked President George Vella to intervene, saying they believed him to be “serious and honest” and that citizens were being misled by people with an interest in protecting themselves. 

The statement was signed by both brothers. 

In response to this statement, Corinne Vella, Daphne Caruana Galizia's sister, said George Degiorgio is a convicted murderer who admitted in an interview with Reuters that, to him, murdering Daphne was “business as usual”. He was willing to blow up Daphne’s car when other members of Daphne’s family were travelling with her, to collect payment for killing Daphne herself.

Rather than face a jury trial and lifetime imprisonment, George and Alfred Degiorgio admitted to killing Daphne and have been sentenced to 40 years in prison, she said.

The Degiorgios’ and another murderer’s convictions for Daphne’s contract killing are thanks to a small group of people working - at great risk to themselves - to bring all of Daphne’s murderers to justice. The attempt by two of Daphne’s murderers to derail pending murder proceedings should be seen in this perspective, she said.