Valletta (AFP)

The three suspects of the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb attack in 2017, were formally charged on Tuesday, but their trial is still far away.

The mystery also remains on the sponsors of the assassination, although the Maltese press, citing police sources, said in November that several Maltese had been identified.

The three men arrested on 4 December 2017, the brothers Alfred Degiorgio and George Degiorgio, as well as Vince Muscat, all in their fifties, had already been charged with the murder.

In accordance with the Maltese procedure, the Minister of Justice officially confirmed this indictment on Tuesday, paving the way for a trial.

According to Maltese judicial experts, however, it will be several years before a trial opens. The prosecution now has 20 months to set a date.

This announcement comes a few days after the decision of the government of Joseph Muscat, summoned by the Council of Europe, to create a public commission of inquiry to determine if it would have been possible to prevent the attack that took the life to Mrs. Caruana Galizia.

In the days following the tragedy, the government used investigators from the US Federal Police and Dutch experts to assist Maltese investigators.

Often referred to as "Wikileaks all by herself", Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed some of the darkest parts of Maltese politics, attacking Muscat but also the leader of the opposition.

After his death, his sons demanded the resignation of Muscat, accusing him of surrounding himself with scammers and creating a culture of impunity that turned Malta into a "mafia island".

? 2019 AFP