CoE may send special rapporteur to oversee murder investigation
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has received a motion calling for a special rapporteur to be sent to Malta to oversee the authorities in their investigation into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and to ensure that investigators can work freely from political interference and that those who ordered the murder can be brought to justice
In a meeting held yesterday, parliamentarians and journalists listened to Caruana Galizia’s sons’ pleas for intervention from the European institution.
Referring to the failed parliamentary motion tabled by Chris Said to appoint an independent inquiry into her murder and her many allegations, they said that no domestic remedies were available to change the course of the current investigation, which they said was impeding their human rights for failing to ensure that the investigation was independent and impartial, for failing to include her family as her next of kin and provide them with insight into the investigations.
“There is no legal precedent to hold a broader public inquiry, no mechanism to examine the case openly and transparently; this is why we are asking for your help,” they explained.
The slain journalist’s sons spoke of the Egrant allegations faced by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, along with his wife Michelle Muscat, and their mother’s claims that the latter was the true owner of the third Panamanian offshore account, and had used Pilatus Bank to facilitate a transfer of €1 million from Leyla Aliyeva, one of the two daughters of Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan.
“The Prime Minister has gone after the whistleblower of these allegations like a rabid dog.
They should be defending whistleblowers. Instead he tells a BBC interviewer that it was impossible to hide €1 million. Does he forget that one of his ministers had half a million euro in cash at home, and he’s even part of the PACE?,” they asked, clearly referring to then-Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia.
They also pointed to the lack of resignations and investigations following the revelation that Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri had opened offshore accounts in Panama in the days following the Labour Party’s election to government in 2013 as further evidence that the country’s institutions are failing.
“There has been the systematic takedown of law enforcement authorities. There have been five police commissioners in five years. The head of the FIAU resigned after handing in a report concerning money laundering and Pilatus Bank.”
“The renaming of the press room at the European Parliament after our mother and the demonstrations following her murder were not even televised by the national broadcaster,” they added.
There was also stinging criticism of the “decades of legal, financial, and psychological harassment” their mother had to endure, including arson attacks on their home, and the multitude of libel suits and criminal defamation cases the journalist faced at the time of her death, specifically Economy Minister Chris Cardona’s controversial garnishee order, which froze €47,460 in assets, a first in libel cases.