The trial by jury of Yorgen Fenech over the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia resumes on Friday for its ninth day, as proceedings continue before Madam Justice Edwina Grima.

Thursday's sitting featured some of the most harrowing testimony heard so far, as an eyewitness described seeing Caruana Galizia alive after an initial explosion before hearing her scream moments before a second, more powerful blast engulfed the vehicle.

Jurors were also shown a series of graphic crime scene and post-mortem photographs documenting the aftermath of the assassination.

The court additionally heard from residents who recalled seeing suspicious vehicles parked near the murder scene in the weeks leading up to the killing, while a Europol expert testified that businessman Yorgen Fenech did not feature among the investigative "scenarios" identified from data extracted from the journalist's mobile phone.

Earlier this week, Arnaud concluded four days of testimony in which he outlined how the investigation developed following the murder, detailing how secret recordings made by state witness Melvin Theuma, messages recovered from the encrypted messaging app Signal and data extracted from Fenech's mobile phone became central to the prosecution's case.

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.

Five men have already been convicted in connection with Caruana Galizia's assassination. Vince Muscat admitted his role in the murder in 2021 and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Alfred and George Degiorgio each received 40-year prison sentences after pleading guilty in 2022, while Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025 for supplying the bomb used in the attack.

The prosecution is being led by Attorney General lawyers Godwin Cini, Anthony Vella and Danika Vella, assisted by Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud and Inspector Kurt Zahra. Fenech is represented by lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianella De Marco and Gianluca Caruana Curran, while lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi are appearing parte civile on behalf of the Caruana Galizia family.

Judge Edwina Grima is presiding over the case.

17:25 Chemist Daniel Vella is the next witness to testify. He tells the court that he was tasked with analysing bomb residue to identify the chemicals present in the explosive device.

Vella explains that he worked alongside experts from the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI). He says both Maltese and Dutch experts collected samples from different parts of the blast site before carrying out their respective analyses.

He tells jurors that he received the samples on 8 December, 2017. His evidence is largely technical in nature, with the defence reserving its cross-examination for a later stage of the proceedings.

With that, today's sitting comes to an end and the court adjourns till Saturday. Thank you for following, we will have a roundup of today's trial on our website shortly.

17:00: The sitting resumes with the testimony of two more AFM divers – Mario Ciantar and Ivan Falzon.  They give a similar account, detailing the murky seas and the clutter on the seabed.

Ciantar said that one of the six mobile phones found was a Samsung, while the other five were Nokias.  They were found on the first day of the search.

16:20: Major Matthew Sant, who was commanding the AFM's Bomb Disposal Unit, is up next.

He testified that in December 2017 his team was informed that an underwater search operation was going to be held near the Marsa Potato Shed, and there may be improvised explosive devices where the search was taking place.

Sant said that after the police and army raided the shed, his team carried out the underwater search.

They split into two teams of two people and battled with poor visibility in the water to meticulously search the area.

In all, after a week-long search, the team found six mobile phones which were passed on to the forensics team.

Proceedings halt again for a half-hour break.

16:05: The Chief Rescue Officer of the Civil Protection Department, Frederick Sammut, is the next to testify.

At the time, he was the Station Officer in Xemxija.  He recalled how when he arrived on the site, the car was still on fire.  He said 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.

15:50: Scerri proceeds to give a forensic, and graphic, description of the murder scene.

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.

15:20: The judge and jury are back in court and proceedings get underway again for the afternoon.

Dr Mario Scerri, who led Caruana Galizia’s autopsy, takes the witness stand.

Judge Edwina Grima has warned those present that more graphic details and imagery are going to be displayed this afternoon.

13:00 Court has adjourned until 3pm for lunch break. We will be back with further updates.

12:58 The court's attention turns back to the scene of the murder.

Police Sergeant Charles Azzopardi Refalo tells jurors that he was on duty at Mosta police station when, at around 2.55pm on 16 October, 2017, he received a report of an explosion in Bidnija.

He says he and other officers immediately made their way to the scene, where they found "three balls of fire." One was the burning vehicle, while the other two were separate areas where flames had broken out. Officers then closed the road to traffic. At that point, the car was still on fire.

He said he went to check whether there was anyone inside the vehicle, when he was approached by Matthew Caruana Galizia, who told him that his mother was in the car.

"As a sign of respect, I bowed my head," the witness said, adding that the journalist's son was in a state of agitation.

It was at that moment that he noticed parts of a human body.

The witness said they attempted to extinguish the fire and called for additional assistance.

He added that he told Matthew Caruana Galizia it was not safe to remain close to the burning vehicle, and the two moved to the side of the road.

12:55 The CCTV footage shown in court captured the movements of the boat Maya. According to the footage, the vessel departed at around 8.12am and returned at 2.43pm, stopping near the Marsa potato shed before berthing. 

12:50 Saliba tells the court that he was assigned to examine CCTV footage from the Grand Harbour area.

The footage, recorded on 16 October, 2017, the day Caruana Galizia was murdered, showed the movements of a boat in the Grand Harbour.

12:40 Police officers Patrick Farrugia and Emanuel Saliba are the latest witnesses to testify.

Farrugia tells the court he was assigned to search an apartment in St Paul's Bay on 1 December, 2017. Saliba says his role was to collect evidence from the Bidnija area, as well as from any other locations that became relevant during the course of the investigation.

12:35 The prosecution calls the final expert witnesses for this stage of the proceedings: ballistic experts Jesmond Cassar, Jonathan Attard and Gloria Alamango.

The three experts tell the court they examined a number of firearms and cartridges recovered during the investigation. Their analysis found that some of the ammunition corresponded to the pistols examined, while other rounds did not.

Their reports have been formally exhibited and will be made available to the jurors, although they were not read out in court.

12:25 Police Sergeant Clinton Vella returns to the witness stand to describe the process investigators followed in an attempt to recover fingerprints from items sealed in evidence bags.

He tells the court that, despite using specialist techniques, including a superglue-like chemical to develop latent fingerprints, investigators were unable to recover any usable prints.

12:15 More scene-of-crime officers take the witness stand, outlining searches carried out at a factory and a vehicle in Marsa, a residence and garage in Żebbuġ, and a residence in Swieqi.

Jurors follow the testimony closely. Inside the courtroom, however, proceedings are intermittently accompanied by sounds from Republic Street outside, where singing, band music and cheering can be heard.

12:05 Court is back in session.

11:35 De Marco asks whether suspects who were in police custody, including Alfred Degiorgio, directed investigators to any of the evidence that was recovered.

"Definitely not," the two crime scene officers reply in unison.

With no further questions from the defence, the court adjourns until noon.

11:33 The crime scene officers also tell the court that investigators recovered binoculars from a van near a garage in Żebbuġ and from a room in Mosta.

They explain that the room was situated above a garage and overlooked Bidnija, where Caruana Galizia was killed.

11:29 Defence lawyer Giannella De Marco begins her cross-examination by asking the officers about who was present during the searches and the locations where firearms were recovered.

The officers tell the court that investigators found a pistol at a flat belonging to Adrian Agius, while spent ammunition was recovered from a site in Mosta that was searched in the presence of Jamie Vella.

Some of the firearms may have been visible in photographs shown in court, although the images are not always clearly visible from the press gallery.

11:20 The officers also tell the court about searches carried out on 5 and 6 December, 2017, at a site in Mosta in the presence of Jamie Vella, who was in police custody at the time.

They describe the location as comprising an area used to store skips and refuse trucks, as well as a garage and an abandoned building. Investigators recovered more than 300 exhibits during the search.

Jamie Vella, a member of the Maksar gang, was convicted last year of supplying the bomb used to assassinate Caruana Galizia and is serving a life sentence.

11:15 The officers also testify about a search carried out at a flat in St Paul's Bay while Alfred Degiorgio was in police custody.

They tell the court that investigators recovered several items from the property, including communications equipment and a GPS device used at sea.

11:09 The court hears from two more scene of crime officers, Arthur Borg and Antoine Fenech.

They tell jurors they were appointed on 4 December, 2017, to carry out a forensic search of a garage in Żebbuġ. Their task was to search the premises for hardware and electronic devices.

Jurors are shown more than 200 photographs documenting the search. Among the items recovered were Visa cards bearing the name Adrian Agius.

Adrian Agius was one of the leaders of the Maksar gang, whose members were convicted last year over their roles in the murders of Caruana Galizia and lawyer Carmel Chircop.

They tell the court that, at around 3am on December 4, 2017, investigators searched a potato shed in Marsa, where they lifted fingerprints and recovered several mobile phones. Members of the Armed Forces of Malta also conducted dives in the area, recovering additional mobile phones.

The officers also examined a BMW parked near the Marsa Regatta Club and carried out a search of a boat named Maya. The officers tell the court that investigators recovered several SIM cards and cigarette butts during their search of Maya.

In total, investigators collected 39 exhibits from the potato shed. The Marsa potato shed was used as a meeting place and hideout by the men involved in planning the assassination. Maya was the boat from which one of the hitmen sent the text message that detonated the bomb.

10:35 The courtroom falls quiet as exhibits relating to the damaged mobile phone are presented to the jury. During the proceedings, the sound of someone crying outside the courtroom can be heard inside.

From the press gallery, it is not possible to determine who is distressed. Much of the evidence heard during this trial has been deeply upsetting for Caruana Galizia's family members.

10:23 Vella tells the court that a mobile phone was recovered near the tyre of Caruana Galizia's destroyed vehicle.

He says the device was sent abroad so that some of its components could be preserved before it was returned to Malta the following month.

10:16 Police Sergeant Clinton Vella is the next witness to testify.

He tells jurors that investigators rented a Peugeot 108 identical to the one driven by Caruana Galizia so they could compare it with the wreckage and identify any components that did not belong to the original vehicle.

"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 explains.

Vella also describes how investigators cleaned, catalogued, examined, photographed and re-sealed items of evidence under the instructions of a court-appointed expert. He tells the court the process took five days and resulted in around 800 photographs being taken.

10:10 Two Scene of Crime Office (SOCO) officers are outlining how items of evidence were cleaned, catalogued, examined, photographed and re-sealed under the direction of a court-appointed expert.

09:59 Debattista concludes his testimony. Neither the defence nor the jurors put any questions to the witness.

09:54 Debattista explains that investigators inserted ballistic trajectory rods through holes in the wreckage to establish the direction of the blast.

He tells the court that the point at which the rods converged identified the seat of the explosion.

"The rods met under the driver's seat," Debattista says, adding that this indicated the explosive device had been placed beneath the driver's seat.

09:48 Debattista tells the court that investigators isolated and preserved any material believed not to have originated from the vehicle.

Among the items recovered from the scene were lengths of thick wiring and several ball bearings.

Jurors are also shown photographs illustrating the force of the explosion, with the blast having displaced the car seats from their original positions.

Debattista tells jurors that investigators photographed the vehicle, documented the damage and collected swabs for forensic analysis. He says all of the findings were recorded in a report that forms part of the evidence before the jury.

He explains that the car was kept in a sealed compound and was accessible only to court-appointed experts. Each time forensic examinations were carried out over the course of three days, the vehicle was unsealed before being sealed again afterwards.

Jurors are shown photographs of the vehicle wrapped in protective plastic before the examination began, followed by images of the fire-damaged wreckage.

Debattista tells the court that the damage to the driver's door indicated the explosion originated from inside the vehicle. He adds that a hole in the floor beneath the driver's seat was consistent with the explosive device having been placed inside the car.

09:29 The court hears from several Scene of Crime Office (SOCO) officers, who outline the procedures followed to secure and preserve evidence in the aftermath of the explosion.

09:16 The judge and jurors have entered the courtroom, and proceedings may now commence.

08:45: Good morning and welcome to the ninth day of this trial-by-jury. We expect proceedings to get underway shortly, at around 9am.