Malta: CFWIJ Demands Justice On 32th Month Of The Assasination Of Daphne Caruana Galizia

Location: Malta
Date: June 16, 2020

CFWIJ remembers and commemorates fellow colleague Daphne Caruana Galizia today, which marks the 32th month of her assasination.

Galizia who was named one of 28 Europeans, who are “shaping, shaking and stirring” Europe was barbarically murdered on October 17,2017 when a bomb destroyed her car as she was driving near her home. 

“This is a vicious attack on one of the most influential journalists and on freedom of the press in Malta. Daphne Caruana Galizia was unapologetically a fire blazer. She had said the following words in the past: ‘Over my dead body will my children be stuck on these rocks.’ Imagine losing a journalist like that,” said Kiran Nazish, Co-Founder and Director of the Coalition For Women In Journalism, after the vicious murder.

“Her murder is an astonishing reminder that we have failed to protect journalists doing the most important work.”

You can read our previous statement about her death here

On June 15th 2020 another trial was held about Galizia’s assasination. Ex-police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar was found to be formally investigated. He was alleged to have tipped off the the self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder about ongoing investigations.

Highlights from Monday's case

-Court orders the acting police commissioner to investigate his predecessor; 

-Il-Ġojja, a friend of Lawrence Cutajar, denies he was a police informer;

-Defence lawyer asks if Keith Schembri had offered a sum to get bail for the alleged hitmen;

-Brincat insists that Theuma did not know Cutajar personally. But earlier Cremona says Theuma told him that he was getting information from Cutajar and had even discussed some form of pardon;

-Theuma had also told Il-Ġojja that Yorgen Fenech had ordered Caruana Galizia's assassination;

-A worried Keith Schembri had called Cremona around September 2019 to ask about Yorgen Fenech because he could not get through to him. 

-Cremona thought Fenech was being blackmailed and that Theuma was after the businessman's money.

You can read the full court proceedings of June 15 here. 

Each testimony in the ongoing court trial on the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia reveals another deeper, more intricate twist in the assassination plot. They involve some of Malta’s highest officials too. Galizia’s family is left to mark the anniversary of another month of her death without any concrete answers.

I sat there and listened to this astonishing evidence of state complicity in my mother's murder, and watched as... absolutely nothing happened. No order to investigate was given. The next hearing was scheduled and the magistrate calmly walked out of the room. That was it. https://t.co/iJqTN3GUFq

— Matthew Caruana Galizia (@mcaruanagalizia) June 1, 2020

The links connecting her assassination to the country’s highest office are being further exposed with each court sitting in the compilation of evidence of Yorgen Fenech. Fenech was charged with acting as the mastermind behind the murder, adding another piece to the picture where everything seems to connect to the Labour government.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has urged the police to investigate “all corners” of the case against the four people who have been charged as well as any other necessary investigations. But the reality is that Abela should not need to urge the police to do their job; the police do not need to take orders from the Prime Minister but should be holding power in check.

If the police had done their job, rather than its top officers protecting corrupt officials and hindering investigations, we would not be in this situation. Abela knows this.

CFWIJ will not forget about the heinous attack that Galizia faced. The Maltese government should take responsibility and full note that it is a great disgrace that an EU member state is involved in the assasination of a journalist. We urge the Maltese government to bring justice and incarcerate all who are involved in this horrific assasination.

The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.

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