Jurors on Friday heard testimony from several forensic experts who explained how they reached the conclusion that the bomb which killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was placed inside her car, under the driver’s seat.
Yorgen Fenech, 44, has pleaded not guilty to two principal charges: complicity in the wilful homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia and criminal association to commit the murder.
Friday was the ninth day of his trial by jury.
Friday's sitting opened with a succession of scene-of-crime officers taking the witness stand, guiding jurors through the painstaking forensic examination carried out on Caruana Galizia's destroyed Peugeot 108 and the evidence recovered in the weeks following the assassination.
SOCO officer Darren Debattista, who formed part of the team that examined the wreckage, explained that investigators photographed the vehicle, documented the damage and collected swabs for forensic analysis, with all findings incorporated into a report exhibited before the jury.
He told the court the car was kept inside a sealed compound and could only be accessed by court-appointed experts. Each time examinations were carried out over three days, the vehicle was unsealed before work began and resealed once the day's inspections had been completed.
Jurors were shown photographs of the vehicle wrapped in protective plastic before the examination started, followed by images of the extensively damaged wreckage.
Debattista said the damage to the driver's door indicated that the explosion had originated from inside the vehicle. He also pointed to a hole in the floor beneath the driver's seat, which he said was consistent with an explosive device having been placed inside the car.
Investigators isolated and preserved all material believed not to have originated from the vehicle, including lengths of thick wiring and several ball bearings. Jurors were also shown photographs illustrating the force of the blast, which displaced the vehicle's seats from their original positions.
Debattista explained that ballistic trajectory rods were inserted through holes in the wreckage to determine the direction of the explosion.
"The rods met under the driver's seat," he told the court, adding that this identified the seat of the explosion and reinforced investigators' conclusion that the device had been placed beneath the driver's seat.
Autopsy reveals blast injuries, hypovolemic shock as cause of death
Dr Mario Scerri, who carried out the autopsy on the victim, gave a forensic, and graphic, description of the murder scene and of the injuries that Caruana Galizia suffered.
He described the severe and extensive injuries that the victim suffered in the explosion, saying that the worst injuries were in the lower part of her body as the bomb was placed underneath the driver’s seat.
In older bomb cases, the bomb tended to be placed underneath the car itself rather than inside the vehicle and would cause damage that would see the roof of the car blown off completely.
The victim was positively identified as Daphne Caruana Galizia after a DNA comparison with a sample taken from Paul Caruana Galizia, one of her sons.
Her cause of death was listed as a mix of blast injuries and hypovolemic shock.
Her injuries were evident at the scene: Chief Rescue Officer of the Civil Protection Department, Frederick Sammut, who was stationed at the Xemxija CPD station at the time recalled that he immediately realised that there was a body in the car, but also recognised that it was clear that nothing other than extinguishing the fire could be done at that point.
Hundreds of exhibits recovered during extensive searches
More scene-of-crime officers described searches carried out at various locations linked to the investigation in the weeks following the murder.
Police Sergeant Clinton Vella explained that investigators rented a Peugeot 108 identical to the one driven by Caruana Galizia so they could distinguish between original vehicle components and material introduced by the explosive device.
"For example, if I found a blue wire of that size and thickness in the damaged car but not in the rented car, it would then be classified as 'foreign' and as part of the explosive," Vella told jurors.
He also described the lengthy process of cleaning, cataloguing, photographing, examining and resealing evidence under the supervision of a court-appointed expert, a process that took five days and resulted in around 800 photographs.
Vella confirmed that Caruana Galizia's mobile phone had been recovered near the tyre of the destroyed vehicle. The device was sent abroad so that some of its components could be preserved before being returned to Malta the following month.
Further testimony from officers Darren Debattista and Michelle Camilleri focused on searches conducted during the investigation, including one at the Marsa potato shed in the early hours of 4 December 2017.
Investigators recovered several mobile phones from the site while members of the Armed Forces of Malta carried out dives in the surrounding area, recovering additional devices.
The officers also searched a BMW parked near the Marsa Regatta Club and the boat named Maya, recovering SIM cards and cigarette butts from the vessel. Maya was the boat from which one of the hitmen sent the text message detonating the bomb.
In total, 39 exhibits were recovered from the potato shed, which the prosecution says served as a meeting place and hideout for those involved in planning the assassination.
Additional searches were later carried out at a garage in Żebbuġ, a flat in St Paul's Bay, a site in Mosta, a factory and vehicle in Marsa, and a residence in Swieqi.
AFM divers testified about how they carried out an underwater search near the Marsa potato shed after police had raided it in December 2017.
Despite battling with poor visibility in the water, the divers recovered six mobile phones in an operation which ran for around a week.
Police officer Patrick Farrugia told jurors he had searched an apartment in St Paul's Bay on 1 December 2017, while police officer Emanuel Saliba explained that he had been tasked with collecting evidence from Bidnija and other locations that became relevant during the investigation.
Saliba also reviewed CCTV footage recorded on the day of the assassination showing the movements of the boat Maya in the Grand Harbour.
Footage showed the vessel departing at around 8.12am and returned at 2.43pm, stopping near the Marsa potato shed before berthing.
Garage searches yield firearms, electronics and binoculars
The jury also heard evidence from officers who were appointed on 4 December 2017 to carry out a forensic search of a garage in Żebbuġ.
Jurors were shown more than 200 photographs documenting the search, during which investigators recovered hardware, electronic devices and Visa cards bearing Adrian Agius’ name.
The officers also described a search carried out at a flat in St Paul's Bay while Alfred Degiorgio was in police custody. Investigators recovered communications equipment and a GPS device used at sea.
Further searches on 5 and 6 December 2017 were conducted at a site in Mosta in the presence of Jamie Vella, who was in police custody at the time.
The location comprised an area used to store skips and refuse trucks, together with a garage and an abandoned building, where investigators recovered more than 300 exhibits.
The officers also told the court that investigators recovered binoculars from a van near a garage in Żebbuġ and from a room overlooking Bidnija situated above a garage in Mosta.
Defence asks about crime scene searches
Defence lawyer Giannella De Marco's cross-examination focused largely on the searches carried out by investigators and the circumstances in which various items were recovered.
She questioned officers about who was present during the searches and the locations where firearms had been found.
The officers confirmed that investigators recovered a pistol from a flat belonging to Adrian Agius, while spent ammunition was recovered from a site in Mosta searched in the presence of Jamie Vella.
De Marco also asked whether any suspects in police custody, including Alfred Degiorgio, had directed investigators to evidence later recovered during the searches.
"Definitely not," the two officers replied in unison.
Later in the sitting, Police Sergeant Clinton Vella returned to explain attempts to recover fingerprints from items sealed in evidence bags.
Despite using specialist techniques, including a superglue-like chemical to develop latent fingerprints, investigators were unable to recover any usable prints.
The prosecution then called three ballistic experts, who testified that they examined a number of firearms and cartridges recovered during the investigation.
Their analysis found that some ammunition corresponded to the pistols examined while other rounds did not. Their reports were formally exhibited and made available to jurors without being read in open court.