MALTA: Two days after two brothers admitted to killing anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and were each given a 40-year prison sentence, protesters in Malta observed the fifth anniversary of her death by a car bomb on Sunday.
Many attendees displayed images of the Maltese and Caruana Galizia flags. “Daphne was right,” they chanted, and “We want full justice.”
Along with Daphne’s husband, their three sons, and Maria Falcone, the sister of Italian anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, who was killed by a car bomb in 1992, Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament and a native of Malta, laid flowers at the scene of the explosion close to Caruana Galizia’s residence.
Metsola pledged to continue promoting independent journalism. Metsola said, “Caruana Galizia was a ‘Woman of Steel’, because she was a woman of principle, a woman who could tell right from wrong.”
“We are responsible to work for the values she worked so hard for. This is also the responsibility of the Maltese State,” she added.
The state was judged to be responsible for the murder because it fostered an environment of impunity, according to a free and open investigation.
Although there were no government officials at the protest, Prime Minister Robert Abela had earlier stated that Caruana Galizia’s murder was a tragic incident “that we must learn from.” He said that the administration was committed to seeing that justice was done completely.
On Friday, Alfred and George Degiorgio were guilty of murder and received 40 years in prison, each surprising change of events on the first day of their trial.
In 2021, an accomplice was given information in exchange for an admission of guilt and a 15-year prison sentence for his involvement in Daphne’s death.
A businessman named Yorgen Fenech has been charged with murder and is currently awaiting trial.
When a government contract to develop a new power plant was controversially awarded to Fenech’s company in 2014, the company was under his leadership.
Konrad Mizzi, the former energy minister, and Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff of the government, allegedly owned Panama-registered businesses that were to receive money through a company that Caruana Galizia had previously revealed existed.
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