Daphne murder suspect lawyer drops his client
The lawyer representing Vincent Muscat, one of the three men accused of the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination, has dropped his client, just three months after taking over as defence counsel in the murder case.
Confirming that he has formally renounced his brief, Dr Arthur Azzopardi told Times of Malta on Sunday that his law firm - Azzopardi Borg and Abela Advocates - would no longer be representing Mr Muscat (known as il-Koħħu) in any of the cases.
"The law firm has renounced its brief in all his cases," Dr Azzopardi said.
Apart from the case on Ms Caruana Galizia's murder, the lawyer had been representing Mr Muscat in two other cases - one related to the 2010 HSBC heist and a constitutional case which Dr Azzopardi said is "not related to either" of the other two.
In 2010, Mr Muscat was accused of being involved in a failed HSBC bank heist, including the attempted murder of a policeman. He is expected to stand trial for his part in the crime early next year.
On what had prompted the decision to drop Mr Muscat as a client, Dr Azzopardi said this was a "partnership" decision but he did not divulge any other information.
Earlier this month, The Sunday Times of...