Malta government responsible for murder of Panama Papers journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, inquiry finds
- Caruana Galizia, who exposed cronyism and sleaze within the country’s elite, was killed by a car bomb in 2017, sparking international outrage
- The Maltese state created an ‘atmosphere of impunity’ that put the journalist at risk, a panel of three judges wrote in a 437-page report
Malta should take responsibility for the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as it created “an atmosphere of impunity” that risked her life, a public inquiry concluded.
The October 2017 car-bomb killing of Caruana Galizia, who exposed cronyism and sleaze within Malta’s political and business elite, sparked international outrage and protests that forced the resignation of former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
A panel of three judges wrote in a 437-page report that although they had not found proof of government involvement, Muscat and his entire former cabinet should be held responsible.
“The state should shoulder responsibility for the assassination,” read the report, which took nearly two years to compile, according to Maltese news media on Thursday.
“It created an atmosphere of impunity, generated from the highest echelons of the administration … the tentacles of which then spread to other institutions, such as the police and regulatory authorities, leading to a collapse in the rule of law”, it read, according to the Times of Malta.
