Caruana Galizia family objects to imposition of time limit

The family of assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has objected to the imposition of a time limit for the conclusion of the public inquiry set up to establish whether everything possible was made to prevent the crime from happening.

In a statement, the family said it wants no interference from the government in the inquiry. Prime Minister Robert Abela has given a three-month extension for the board of inquiry to complete its work – until 15 December – but the family believes more time is needed.

The family of the journalist, killed in October 2017, said it had filed a note of submission to the state-appointed board of the public inquiry into the circumstances of the assassination of our wife and mother, concerning the Prime Minister’s letter informing the board that he is granting a one-time deadline extension to 15 December 2020.

The board has stated that the new deadline is insufficient and a further extension will be necessary, the family said.

The terms of reference for the public inquiry are clear. It is within the state-appointed board’s remit, and not the government’s, to decide when its work is complete. If the board decides it needs more time to fulfil its remit, the deadline of the public inquiry is automatically extended.

The government’s role, the family contended, is to provide the board with the necessary resources to complete its task, and to act on the recommendations of its final report.

In their note, the family explained that it is clear that the board is working tirelessly and has called numerous witnesses, but it is also clear that there are still several witnesses that still need to be called to testify.

The matter was raised during yesterday’s sitting by family lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia. She said that when one sees the terms of reference of the board and the Inquiries Act, it is the terms of reference that bind the board of inquiry. “These terms of reference were agreed upon after many struggles and arguments with government... The terms of reference say it should work with the aim of concluding the inquiry within nine months, but doesn’t bind it not to extend if more time is needed,” she argued.

“But when you see the reticence of the witnesses and the wasting of time by witnesses, we don’t have the opportunity to say these are the witnesses and conclude the list, because they are creating new avenues of inquiry,” she said.

The inquiry, led by former Judge Michael Mallia and having former chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino and judge Abigail Lofaro as members, has also been hampered by restrictions that were imposed by the health authorities when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Malta.

Sittings had to be postponed for three months because of these restrictions.

During yesterday’s sitting, Judge Mallia said he was going to order a formal notification to the Prime Minister to notify about Therese Comodini Cachia’s arguments. “Following the letter of the Prime Minister, in which he extended the term of the inquiry till 15 December, the board orders that a copy of this note [filed by the Caruana Galizia lawyers] and a copy of the verbal arguments made by Therese Comodini Cachia be communicated to the PM, so that if he feels the need, he can make the appropriate submissions,” Mallia said.

Cassola letter

In another development, independent candidate Arnold Cassola called on the President of the Republic to ensure that the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia be given all the time it needs to complete its mandate.

Cassola told George Vella that Prime Minister Robert Abela’s ‘onetime’ extension of the inquiry to December 2020 was “illegitimate.”

“Abela’s former ‘employer’ is former prime minister Joseph Muscat, whose administration granted Abela hundreds of thousands in direct orders to his law firm. Muscat even appointed him a consultant to the Cabinet, right up to January 2020. This is an enormous conflict of interest for Abela,” Cassola said.

Cassola warned that by limiting the inquiry’s mandate, Abela could prevent it from investigating all possible connections that former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had with Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder.

“I am asking the Commission for the Administration of Justice to declare Abela’s decision as null and invalid. The public inquiry should have all the time it needs to investigate and arrive at the truth that all honest Maltese citizens aspire to.”

“Muscat’s role in the aftermath of the assassination is not yet completely known,” Cassola argues.

The public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is tasked with, amongst other things, determining whether the State did all it could to prevent the murder from happening.

Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb just outside her Bidnija home on 16 October 2017. Three men, George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, have been charged with carrying out the assassination, while Yorgen Fenech is charged with masterminding the murder.

Melvin Theuma, who acted as a middleman between Fenech and the three killers, was granted a presidential pardon last year to tell all.

Permanent Secretary in Finance Ministry testifies

During yesterday’s sitting, the principal permanent secretary in the Finance Ministry Alfred Camilleri continued his testimony.

Camilleri testified that as the government faced massive protests last December, Konrad Mizzi had asked him to say that he was “not involved.”

“Someone had told me ‘look me in the eyes and say I am not involved in anything’,” Camilleri cryptically told the inquiry board about an incident that happened at parliament while people protested outside.

Pressed to clarify his statement by Caruana Galizia lawyer Jason Azzopardi, Camilleri said it was Konrad Mizzi who spoke those words.

“I had replied to him, I don’t look anybody in the eyes,” Camilleri told the inquiry.

Mizzi had resigned from Cabinet after businessman Yorgen Fenech was arrested in connection with the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.

Asked about the possibility that Malta is grey-listed by Moneyval, the permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe which assesses compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering, Camilleri said that if greylisting happens it would mean that Malta would have a programme of action to be implemented with handholding from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The consequences are not that predictable, he said. “It could be that it is not correct to expect the collapse of the country,” he added.

“Grey-listing means that a detailed programme of reforms would have to be drawn up and that the country would be closely monitored by the FATF. FATF was set up by the G20. Moneyval falls under the Council of Europe, it is not the European Union. In the Moneyval report you have the whole framework. Due to the result, we obtained... you have the whole framework which looks like a chain... We failed in nine out of eleven,” he explained.

“It will impact investment upon which we greatly depend because we will become less attractive. Our success is built on trust and correspondent banking, and banks aren’t charities,” he said. The reputational risk cannot be quantified, he added.