Disciplinary action against policeman who celebrated journalist’s murder still pending

Disciplinary action against a police sergeant who celebrated the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia is still pending for medical reasons, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia told Parliament on Wednesday.

He was replying to a parliamentary question by PN MP Karol Aquilina.

Sergeant Ramon Mifsud had been suspended after he uploaded a Facebook post celebrating Carauna Galizia’s murder in October 2017. “What goes around comes around, [cow dung]! Feeling happy,” he had written.

The slain journalist had mentioned the police sergeant in a number of blog posts, reporting that he had been reprimanded at least twice for being drunk on duty and that he was one of a number of police officers who had assaulted a French student in Paceville.

Mifsud is being investigated by the Public Service Commission.

Reacting to Mifsud’s online comment, the Malta Police Association had said that it condemned any comment which backed the barbaric murder. “Such comments go directly against the nature of police work, as the police have a duty to fight crime,” the association had said.

The Office of the Prime Minister had also deplored the online comment, saying that it did not befit any citizen, let alone an officer whose role was to protect all Maltese citizens.