Yorgen Fenech's trial moves into its second weekend, during which jurors are due to hear from experts from the American FBI after Friday's emotionally charged sitting.

This testimony follows one of the trial's most harrowing days so far.

On Friday, first responders, forensic experts, and crime scene investigators painstakingly retraced the events of 16 October 2017 and pieced together the aftermath of the car bomb that killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

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 Demarco and Gianluca Caruana Curran, while lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi are appearing parte civile on behalf of the Caruana Galizia family.

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17:54 And that concludes today's session, thanks for following.

Join us again next Monday for the next sitting of Yorgen Fenech's jury tial. 

17:53 IT expert Martin Bajada's testimony has come to an end. 

17:38 "How many times were Keith Schembri and Chris Cardona mentioned in the extracted emails?" the defence asks, referring to the emails retrieved from Daphne Caruana Galizia's devices.

The witness, Martin Bajada, responds by highlighting the sheer volume of the data, which he explains spans over 29,000 pages. 

Bajada states that if given more time, he would be willing to review the pages to provide a specific number of times Cardona and Schembri were mentioned.

"If Bajada prefers, we can find them ourselves," de Marco says. "Then on Monday we can put them on the screen."

17:22 Shifting her focus, De Marco begins to question the witness on Edgar Brincat.

Bajada notes that two separate data extractions had taken place under two separate magisterial investigations, primarily a money laundering inquiry led by Magistrate Anthony Vella.

The court hears that another expert, Keith Cutajar, will be called to testify on the subsequent extractions.

The defence also requests the call profiles of hitman Alfred Degiogrio.

17:10 Giannella De Marco also requests the exhibition of various phone extractions and call profiles linked to several individuals central to the investigation.

Specifically, the defence requests call profiles for Melvin Theuma's phones. In response, Bajada explained that these records were already part of an earlier extraction that had been previously exhibited. When asked by the judge whether he had personally worked on Theuma's device, Bajada confirmed he had examined it during the investigation into alleged leaks from the murder inquiry.

De Marco further requests the extractions and call profiles for the former Police Commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar. She also sought the records relating to Edgar Brincat, known as "Il-Ġojja".

17:00 The witness explains that Keith Schembri's call profiles were only retrieved under the 'Daphne Leaks' inquiry under magistrate, now Judge Doreen Clarke. 

De Marco also references three telephone numbers belonging to Keith Camilleri, a former OPM security official, and Johann Cremona.

The court hears that there are 15 different call profiles spanning over various devices.

Kenneth Camilleri is a former security official at the Office of the Prime Minister who worked closely with Keith Schembri.

Johann Cremona is a business associate of Yorgen Fenech who knew Melvin Theuma.

16:45 The cross-examination of IT expert Martin Bajada begis. Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco requests that the 2020 data extraction from Keith Schembri's phones, which utilised updated forensic software, be formally exhibited during Schembri's upcoming testimony. She specified that the material, stored on a pendrive, pertains to two iPhones identified as KS1 and KS2. The court is informed that a forensic clone of these devices had been produced and made accessible for various ongoing investigations. 

16:27 Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco argues that the prosecution has had six years to secure the testimony of the authors of the emails to verify their contents. The judge responded that the prosecution cannot isolate specific emails. It was agreed that IT expert Martin Bajada will be recalled to confirm the emails were included in his original report. Judge Edwina Grima rules that jurors will be informed if no witness can validate the contents of these emails. 

16:11 IT expert Martin Bajada clarifies that his role was to skim through Caruana Galizia's emails briefly to redact information relating to other individuals. The witness says that he does not remember the contents of the emails.

16:08 The defence argues that it was unaware of a number of Caruana Galizia's emails in which the message was written entirely in the subject line. 

Judge Edwina Grima rules that any cross-examination regarding the subject could proceed at this stage.

The prosecution maintains that it's primary focus would be the redacted emails, however, the defence opposes this, saying that the jury must be presented with the entire unredacted version of the emails.

Defence lawyer Charles Mercieca says that if the prosectution is to refer to Caruana Galizia's emails, they must do so using their digital format, meaning their complete form.

The defence maintains that since the author of the emails is not present to confirm the validity of their contents, the text itself should not constitute as proof of any claims made. Rather, it says, the emails only prove that a communication took place on a specific date and time. 

In the event that the prosecution does not produce the author of the emails, the defence requests that the court directs the jurors on how this evidence should be evaluated.

Judge Edwina Grima decides that if the witness, Martin Bajada, confirms the validity of his report made before the emails were redacted, the jurors will then be able to be handed the original emails in their complete form.

The authors of the emails may also be called in to testify, Judge Grima says. 

15:57 Legal arguments arise concerning the use of emails extracted from Daphne Caruana Galizia's account. The defence team insist that if the prosecution plans to present these emails to the jury, they must use the original, unredacted versions rather than the versions redacted to protect journalistic sources. Defence lawyer Charles Mercieca contends that the unredacted documents represent the actual evidence, whereas the redactions were made solely at the request of the family's lawyers. 

15:37 Prosecuting lawyer Godwin Cini concludes his questioning regarding whether newer softwar had ever been used to extract further data from Yorgen Fenech's phone.

Court expert Martin Bajada clarifies that the extraction was conducted in 2020 using the software available at the time. No software has been used since, he says.

Turning to the data retrieved from Caruana Galizia's phone, Bajada says it contained an extensive volume of emails.

He explains that he has been instructed to preserve the email bodies, but to filter out the footers, noting that many of the emails were blank since the actual message had been written entirely in the subject line.

At this, the defence raises an objection. The jury leaves the room.

15:15: We are back in the courtroom. Sitting set to resume shortly.

13:05 The jury was ordered out as the prosecution and defence began arguing over lines of questioning. The exchange grew heated, prompting the judge to call for a recess. The court was adjourned until 2pm.

12:50 Bajada noted that extraction technology has advanced significantly since the case began. While extracting data from apps like WhatsApp and Signal was considered novel at the start, modern software can now extract virtually everything. He explained that he revisited data extraction several years later following software updates, comparing these IT advancements to progress in DNA technology that allows cold cases to be reopened.

12.38 Bajada tells the court they had to tread carefully when examining Daphne Caruana Galizia's phone because she was a journalist. Investigators knew the device contained not only personal information, but potentially years of communication with confidential sources who had approached her as an investigative reporter.

Exposing those sources, Bajada tells the court, was never the objective. "The story, yes. The sources, no," he says.

He says that investigators sought to preserve journalistic confidentiality while still identifying possible leads arising from Daphne's published work.

The forensic team went through the phone's contents and highlighted to the inquiring magistrate people who could, at least theoretically, have had a motive linked to Daphne's reporting.

After cloning the phone and extracting the available data, Bajada says the material was handed over to Europol.

Europol's subsequent report largely mirrored the Maltese findings. While European investigators identified seven individuals, the Maltese team had drawn up a broader list.

12:14 Bajada says the investigation later took a new turn after a series of leaks began appearing in the media in 2020.

Some of the leaked information, he explains, originated from mobile phone data, while other details found their way into newspaper reports.

Those leaks prompted a separate inquiry, which he refers to as "DaphneLeaks". Part of that investigation is still ongoing.

Bajada recalls that, following reports alleging then-police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar may have met Edgar "Il-Ġojja" Brincat, the inquiring magistrate ordered experts to examine the vehicles used by the commissioner.

The aim was to establish whether any of the vehicles contained GPS data that could verify their movements.

However, none of the vehicles, Bajada tells the court, yielded sufficient location data for investigators to reconstruct their journeys.

12:12 Bajada is now exhibiting another report, setting out the forensic team's work day by day as they worked through the contents of Daphne Caruana Galizia's mobile phone.

The analysis was divided up between four experts.

One was tasked with examining the emails, another the WhatsApp data, while the remaining material was allocated across the rest of the team.

He tells jurors they were working against time, with telecoms providers' data retention periods steadily running down.

The wider team initially comprised six experts, Bajada says, with retired judge Geoffrey Valenzia appointed to oversee the exercise.

Valenzia and another expert later withdrew from the inquiry for personal reasons.

12:05 Bajada testifies about his analysis of a photograph allegedly showing former minister Chris Cardona with one of the hitmen, Alfred Degiorgio. He explained that his investigation concluded the image was captured during a party at a Siġġiewi farmhouse, which Cardona attended for approximately five minutes and which Degiorgio also happened to attend. Bajada stated he could not recall further specific details regarding the event. 

11:48 Bajada says Daphne Caruana Galizia's mobile phone only turned up after the wrecked car was moved.

Once it was found, investigators realised they could not simply take out the SIM card, as it was damaged beyond repair.

Instead, they decided to clone the device, a process that took some time.

The only data they could not recover was part of her WhatsApp data, which had not yet been backed up and remained on the phone's SD card.

That SD card, Bajada says, was damaged beyond recovery.

It was later sent off to the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), where experts tried to stop it from deteriorating further and salvage whatever information they could.

11:44 Bajada is now explaining the technical side of the investigation.

Investigators pulled in 12 months' worth of mobile phone records and six months of internet data.

But engineering data linked to Daphne Caruana Galizia's phone only went back a month, he says, because of the sheer volume of information generated by mobile phone antennas, making it impractical for providers to hold on to it for longer.

He tells the court the mobile phones used by the suspects were basic "burner phones", capable only of making calls and sending SMS messages.

Such phones, he explains, are often picked up by people wanting to cover their tracks, as they leave behind far less digital data.

The service providers keep hold of call logs and SMS records, Bajada says, but not the content of text messages themselves. For that, you'd need the actual device.

Newer burner phones can also tap into the internet, generating records of data usage measured in gigabytes.

Turning to what he describes as the "infamous bomb SMS", Bajada explains that a text message is first routed through the antenna serving the receiving phone.

In this case, the explosion happened instantly after the message was received, meaning the phone never had the chance to ping back the antenna to confirm delivery.

11:26 Bajada is walking jurors through the expert reports he drew up over the course of the magisterial inquiry.

He tells the court he was brought in on 17 October 2017 - the day after Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination - and stayed on throughout the inquiry.

With a vast amount of digital evidence expected to pour in, Bajada says a team of four specialists was put together to help work through the material. He was set up with an office inside the law courts, complete with the hardware and software needed to carry out the forensic analysis.

By the third day of the inquiry, he says, the team had already teamed up with the FBI. The FBI carried out technical exercises involving mobile phone antennas, while Bajada's team followed up with Malta's telecoms providers to gather in the data investigators needed.

Every request for data, he stresses, was signed off by the inquiring magistrate, with the FBI investigators going through the data collected.

11.15 The sitting resumes. Court-appointed IT expert Martin Bajada takes the witness stand.

Bajada tells the court he has worked as a full-time freelance IT expert for the past 30 years. He is also a lawyer.

He adds that he has worked in over 4,000 court cases.

11:00 Lawyer Giannella de Marco asks Fennern when the SIM cards were acquired.

Fennern says he does not know.

With that, Judge Edwina Grima calls a short recess.

10:33 Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco beings by asking Fennern to confirm that two SIM cards were involved in the plot: one used for the calls and the other for the detonation. Fennern agrees.

The defence retraces the timeline, pointing to the SIM card activity on 10 January 2017, 21 August 2017, and 16 October 2017.

Fennern tells the court that the SIM card used on 16 October was later inserted into a GSM module; a device that connects to the mobile network and can be used to trigger external equipment remotely.

10:29 Fennern tells the court that the SIM cards worked in tandem to carry out the placement and detonation of the bomb. He says the phone number linked to George Degiorgio played a role in triggering the explosion.

And with that, FBI Officer Fennern wraps up his evidence. The prosecution takes its seat and the defence takes its feet. The witness will now be cross-examined.

"The phones, for want of a better term, were burner phones used to carry out this bombing," he tells the court.

He shifts to Alfred Degiorgio's personal phone. Fennern says the location data from 15 October placed Alfred Degiorgio's phone in the same area as the burner phones, being around St Paul's Bay.

On 16 October, the phone was active between 2:04am and 4:46am before dropping off the network. The phone does not reconnect until after 3pm, when it again resurfaces in the St Paul's Bay area. Shortly after reconnecting, the phone receives a text message from George Degiorgio.

Fennern notes to the court that the activity on Alfred Degiorgio's phone is consistent with the movement and network data which was already examined.

10:20 Fennern goes through his report with the jury, detailing maps and bearings recorded by the network.

10:12 Next, Fennern takes the court through pages of telecoms data, noting call durations, timestamps, cell site connections, and the locations in which each of the three burner phones connected to the network.

Now at around page 60 of the report, Fennern turns to location updates. He explains that the network periodically logged each device's position by recording the cell sector it was connected to.

The report includes numerous coverage maps, sector overlays, azimuth calculations, and cell site analysis. Azimuth calculations are used to determine an objects exact bearing from an observer's location.

9:57 Fennern states he was confident in identifying the two phone numbers used to detonate the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, as well as three additional numbers suspected of being linked to the crime. He noted that all three of these phones appeared to move in tandem toward the same locations.

Fennern moves on to the call records linked to the burner phones used during the murder. He displays an overlay map which shows how the cell sectors overlapped at the time the bomb went off.

Fennern focuses on a call that lasted from 2:57pm until 2:59pm. This phone call coincided with the time the fatal text message was sent. This call stood out to investigators.

The call was made between two phone numbers which differed only by their last digit. Fennern explains that mobile numbers are often handed out consecutively. This similarity grabbed investigator's attention.   

Additionally, these two phone numbers had only ever called each other.

9:36 The suspicious phone number was activated on just three occasions: 10 January 2017, 21 August 2017, and 16 October 2017. The January activity consisted only of a top-up text and a confirmation message, Fennern says. Fennern now turns to the activity recorded on 16 October, the day Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated.

The device was switched on at 1:41am, over 12 hours before the bomb went off. From that point on, the network logged regular location updates roughly once every hour. Fennern explains that these location updates are routine network check-ins, adding that the mobile network is constantly checking where a device is located.

At 2:58:55pm, the phone sent out the message that detonated the bomb and murdered the journalist. Seconds later, the device disappeared from the network.

9:21 Fennern testifies that he analysed activity at a cell tower near the murder scene between 2:58pm and 3:16pm, identifying 53 unique phone numbers connected during that period. By October 23, only one of those numbers had become inactive, marking it as a subject of interest. Fenner noted that the number was highly suspicious, as it had only been validated by the network three times in total: once in January, once in August, and for a final time on the day of the murder. 

Fennern shows the court a map pinpointing each of the cell towers included in his report. He asks the jurors to picture each cell tower like a clock with 360 degrees. Each circle marked on the map represents a Vodafone cell tower, Fennern explains, with every tower split into three sectors. These sectors provide coverage to a particular area. Fennern now zooms in on the Bidnija tower. He recalls that investigators requested the cell data for the Bidnija sector, narrowing the information down to the approximate time of the assassination.

From there, investigators went on to identify about 50 phone numbers which were in contact with one another during the relevant timeframe. The next step, Fennern says, was to work out which of those numbers had since gone inactive. Only one number had disappeared from the records, and immediately stood out as suspicious.

9:12 FBI expert Richard Fennern, a specialist in cellular analysis, began his testimony today. He described his initial work in Malta, where he met with local telecommunications providers to understand their network infrastructure and the positioning of cellular towers. He explained that each tower is assigned a unique identifier and provides 360-degree signal coverage. 

9:10 The jurors have antered the courtroom and the proceedings are about to start.