Malta turns 5 years since a journalist was killed, seeks justice
VALLETTA, Malta — Malta on Sunday marked the fifth anniversary of the murder by car bomb of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, with calls for justice and praise for the courage of a woman whose death shocked Europe and revealed a culture of impunity on the Mediterranean island nation.
More than 1,000 Maltese residents joined the relatives, activists and the Maltese President of the European Parliament of Caruana Galizia in a march and night vigil in a makeshift memorial opposite the Valletta courts. There was also the sister of Italy’s anti-Mafia crusader investigator, Giovanni Falcone, who was himself killed by the mob in a highway bombing in Sicily in 1992.
The anniversary comes just two days after two prime suspects reversed course on the first day of their trial and pleaded guilty to murder. But other cases are still pending in the Maltese courts and both the government and the opposition leaders have asked for justice to be done.
Caruana Galizia had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in the EU nation, and was killed on 16 October 2017, when a bomb placed under her car exploded while she was driving drive by her house. The murder shocked Europe and sparked angry protests in Malta.
A 2021 public inquiry report found that the Maltese state “must take responsibility” for the killing due to the culture of impunity that emerged from the highest levels of government. But as recently as last month, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe had condemned the “lack of effective results in the establishment of responsibility.”
During the night vigil, one of Caruana Galizia’s nieces, Megan Mallia, read a message on behalf of her family which said that the killing of an investigative anti-corruption journalist like her aunt ” it robs people of their right to understand the reality in it. live.”
The men who ended Daphne’s life knew this, she said. “They were not afraid of the country’s authorities, nor of their own conscience. They were afraid of the thousands of people who chose to light a candle to chase away the darkness.”
Caruana Galizia, 53 years old, was an excellent Maltese investigative journalist who was targeted by people in the inner circle of the then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who is accused of having offshore companies in tax havens revealed in the Panama Papers leak. It is also aimed at the opposition. When she was killed, she was facing more than 40 libel lawsuits.
“Throughout her life, Daphne Caruana Galizia always followed one principle in her investigative stories: She always did what she had to do. Not what benefited her. Not that convenient. Not what was popular. But that was right,” said the president of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, to those at the vigil.
The anniversary came two days after the trial was opened for the brothers George Degiorgio, 59, and Alfred Degiorgio, 57, the alleged hitmen who were accused of carrying out the bomb. After several hours of the hearing, they revised their pleas and pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 40 years in prison each. The sentence brought to three the number of people serving time, after Vincent Muscat pleaded guilty last year for his part in the murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Yorgen Fenech, a top businessman with ties to the former government, is awaiting trial following his indictment in 2021 for alleged complicity in murder and conspiracy to commit murder. His arrest in 2019 sparked a series of mass protests in the country that culminated in the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Fenech had entered pleas of not guilty to all charges in the compilation of evidence before the trial. Two other men have been accused of supplying the bomb and are currently undergoing a compilation of evidence before the trial. They pleaded not guilty.
Self-confessed middleman, taxi driver Melvin Theuma, was granted a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for testimony.
The Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna opened the commemoration of the anniversary on Sunday by celebrating a Mass in the church of Bidjna near where Caruana Galizia lived, and said that the killing can never be “business as usual” and stressed on the need for justice, even when it inconveniences the powerful.
Afterwards, activists, family members and Metula presided over a silent meeting at the site of the bombing. They planted a banner on the ground that said “Justice” together with a large poster of the journalist’s face and placed flowers in the shape of the number five. They were joined by Maria Falcone, whose brother Giovanni and his wife, as well as three bodyguards were killed by a bomb placed in a Sicilian highway on 23 May 1992.
Falcone later thanked the vigil crowd for coming out in such large numbers, saying that their presence shows that the killing of Caruana Galizia will not be in vain.
She urged the Maltese to keep it up, and said that Italy has paid the price with deaths due to its painful history of organized crime. “I want you to take our society as an example to understand what a tremendous evil the Mafia is, and the even greater evil that is the relationship and agreement between the Mafia and politics,” she said.
“As Giovanni used to say: ‘Do your job at all costs,'” said his sister. “Giovanni and Daphne did this, but now our job is to remember them day after day.”