The police in Malta have another suspect suspected of being involved in the bombing of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The new suspect allegedly brought the person who commissioned the murder in contact with the people who committed the attack that killed the investigative journalist on October 16, 2017.
The arrest is a new step in the investigation into the murder of the journalist. The actual perpetrators of the bombing were arrested more than a year ago and have already been charged. But the trial of the perpetrators has still not begun, presumably because of the risk of revelations about cooperation between criminals, business leaders and top politicians.
The murdered journalist had revealed a scandal from the Panama Papers shortly before her death. She accused employees of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of running foreign letterbox companies. The Prime Minister's wife would have benefited from this as the owner of the Egrant company in Panama. The company circulated large amounts of money in transactions with a bank in Azerbaijan.
Shortly after the murder, the government announced that it would be promising a million euros for information leading to the perpetrators. The murder led to protests in Malta. The protesters demanded a rapid resolution of the case and the end of corruption in politics and with the authorities.
In Malta, this initially led to an investigation that already revealed close ties between major criminals and politicians and business leaders. A 1500-page report is ready but still not made public by the Maltese Justice.
That corruption and favoritism also dominate the judicial process in Malta, was also clear from a damning report by Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt. As rapporteur for the Council of Europe, he spent months investigating the murder and revelations on money laundering in Malta, among others.
According to the Omtzigt report published this year, the weaknesses of Malta are a source of vulnerability for the entire European Union. Whoever is a Maltese citizen is a citizen of the entire European Union. A Maltese passport is a passport with which you can travel freely within the 26 European Schengen countries. And Maltese banks give access to the European banking system. "If Malta is unable or unwilling to correct its weaknesses, the European institutions must intervene," Omtzigt said in his report.
Following that European criticism, Malta has now decided to conduct a new, completely independent investigation. The research assignment has also been broadened. The original investigation was set up to look at "the death" of the deceased journalist, while the new job description repeatedly refers to murder.
The earlier research results will also be made public and the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia may read the complete report. Two of the three members of the committee of inquiry have also been replaced, after consultation with the family of the murdered journalist. They did not agree with the previous appointments.
A link is now also being made with some 20 or so previous attacks on Malta in the past ten years. This also involves the involvement of a few large companies and prominent (former) politicians.