Cardona denies drinking with man accused of journalist’s murder as House descends into chaos
● Project Daphne report says encounter took place after murder, before arrests ● Family says it does not trust police with slain journalist’s laptop
Bombshell claims published six months and a day after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia yesterday forced Economy Minister Chris Cardona to issue a denial and the Opposition to walk out of a stormy parliamentary session.
In its first round of reports, Project Daphne – a group of journalists that say they will continue working on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s stories – alleged that Cardona had been seen, by two eyewitnesses, with one of the three men accused of the journalist’s murder. Cardona has vehemently denied the claims.
Journalists working undercover had spoken to two people at the bar, one of whom had identified the suspect as Alfred Degiorgio.
This allegedly took place in November, after the murder and before the arrests following a raid in Marsa.
Minister Cardona told the Project that he did not recall having any discussions with the three accused.
In a further reaction, yesterday, he said that the reports were “clearly speculative, based on hearsay which have no foundation of truth.”
“The implication is clear and highly defamatory,” he said in a statement.
Cardona also published the reply he had given to the reporters from Project Daphne: “Like most seasoned criminal lawyers in Malta, I know who some of the suspects in the case are. The particular pub you mention welcomes patrons from all walks of life, including other politicians. I do not, however, recall having any discussions with any of these individuals, and have definitely never had any meetings with them. Anything else is baseless rumour and speculation.”
At the start of yesterday’s parliamentary session, the Opposition demanded a ministerial statement from the government, but the request was not entertained.
The rejection came after Opposition leader Adrian Delia failed to quote a particular standing order to justify his call. Delia, who criticised the culture of silence in the country said that it was essential that government answered questions that the people had a right to know. “The whole world is looking at the country,” he said.
PN MP Jason Azzopardi then asked the home affairs minister to confirm that the accused had been told that they were going to be arrested prior to their arrest. The PN Members of Parliament then walked out.
Speaking at a press conference later in the evening, Delia said no one, not the Speaker and not Parliament, would stop the Opposition from asking pertinent questions.
While stressing that the Opposition was not speculating, but seeking urgent answers from the government, Delia described the latest revelations as the latest chapter in this story.
“There are new developments, new questions, which the Opposition and the public have the right to know the answers to. Was the prime minister informed about the revelations? If so, why did he remain silent? If not, why was he not informed?”
PL statement
Reacting, the Labour Party said Caruana Galizia had written a lot about Delia, and the PN leader was only speaking to appease those who did not see him as their leader.
“Regarding many stories that Caruana Galizia wrote about, there are ongoing investigations. However, not so with regard to Adrian Delia. This is because he withdraw his libel cases and refused to call a magisterial inquiry, despite the allegations being about prostitution, drugs and money laundering. All this shows that he is the one who has most to answer for.”
“As is always the case anyone who has information about allegations should go to investigators who with great professionalism have already brought three suspects before the courts. Justice is not done through the levelling of accusations and the sense of revenge of some.”
The missing laptop
Meanwhile, Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of the sons of the murdered journalists, yesterday said he did not know where his mother’s laptop was. He was reacting to reports that the family was holding on to the laptop, which the police wanted in connection with the murder investigation. Caruana Galizia also mused that the prime minister’s personal email had been used to plan the murder. His full Facebook post read: “I would burn my mother’s laptop in front of the police if I knew where it was. It’s the prime minister’s laptop that the police need, not my mother’s. Joseph Muscat, where is your laptop? Where is the laptop and the private joseph@josephmuscat.com email server that you could have used to plan the assassination of my mother?”
But in another Project Daphne story published minutes later, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister, Corinne Vella, said the family cannot hand over the slain journalist’s laptop because they don’t trust the authorities. She was quoted as saying that her sister would never have wanted her laptop given to the authorities, and said that the journalist always hid it before leaving home.
She said that Daphne Caruana Galizia knew that whatever information the police received would go to the people she investigated in government.
Reports quote Corinne Vella as saying that it’s as though they are being asked to hand over the laptop or they won’t investigate. “We can’t do that. We just don’t trust them.”
No politicians probed
In another report published yesterday it was said that politicians were not interviewed during the investigations into the murder. A source close to the probe told the Project that the police believe that the person who ordered the hit was likely part of an organised crime ring. Reports also read that investigators are currently probing the connections of the three suspects currently charged with the journalist’s murder, attempting to discover who ordered the assassination.
In a separate article, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s husband, Peter, said that she had considered stopping writing in her blog after the last general election in June 2017.