The magistrate presiding over the newly-reopened compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech observed in court that two of the three tasks given to court experts by the magistrate leading the inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia had not been completed.

Lawyers for Fenech, who is indicted and awaiting trial for allegedly bankrolling the journalist's murder, had obtained an order from the Court of Criminal Appeal last month in terms of which the Court of Magistrates was to hear a number of prosecution witnesses who were listed to testify during Fenech's trial, but who had not given evidence during the compilation of evidence.

Several witnesses took the witness stand on Tuesday. The first cohort were court-appointed transcribers who had transcribed the audio-visual statements released to the police by Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the murder plot; Johann Cremona a business associate of Fenech's in online gambling company Bestplay with links to both Fenech and Theuma; and the former OPM Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri.

Police inspector Charlot Casha, who had participated in a search of Keith Schembri's office at the Office of the Prime Minister in the Auberge de Castille in Valletta also testified on Tuesday. He had been instructed to download CCTV footage from the office.

Cross-examined by defence lawyer Charles Mercieca, the inspector confirmed that it had been the inquiring magistrate who had engaged him to search Schembri's office. Asked to state to the court who had been present for the search, the witness said Superintendent Keith Arnaud, Inspector Kurt Zahra and inspector Keith Vella, were present, together with Keith Schembri "and a certain Mario Galea."

He told the court that he had the impression that Galea was employed at the OPM, as he had unlocked the office doors for them.

A subaltern of Casha's told the court about an email concerning papers that were allegedly sent by Keith Schembri to Yorgen Fenech. Mercieca asked the witness to exhibit a copy of a subsequent email sent by Superintendent Keith Arnaud, authorising him to scan the documents and send them to Europol. The witness replied that he no longer had a copy.

Half a dozen experts who were appointed to examine various mobile phones and electronic devices during the magisterial inquiry into the murder also testified.

During the course of over two hours of cross-examination, it emerged that some of them had not fully completed the tasks they had been appointed to do. While data had been extracted from the devices, no data traffic analysis was carried out with respect to the exhibits.

One Europol expert explained that data traffic had to be captured in order to be analysed, and so there could be no data traffic capture in this case because the mobile phone in question - Daphne Caruana Galizia's - was destroyed in the explosion.

But when asked by Mercieca whether data traffic analysis could, in theory, still be carried out, another expert witness replied that it was possible, as long as the data is not encrypted.

Magistrate Montebello noted that the tasks which had to be carried out, as decreed by the inquiring magistrate, were the collection of data traffic, the analysis of that data traffic, and data extraction, and that the first two of these tasks had not been completed.

The case will continue in December.

Lawyers Anthony Vella and Godwin Cini are prosecuting on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General. Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Charles Mercieca and Marion Camilleri are Fenech's defence counsel.