Analysis: "Killing a journalist in Europe nobody should get away with"

Malta is the paradise island in the Mediterranean, which also has a very dark back. It was the shady parts of the island that murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia tried to expose. She wrote about the corruption in the country. Only after the car bomb that killed her, a short distance from her home in the middle of the island, did Malta get seriously on the radar for its deficiencies in democracy and the judiciary. Following criticism from the Council of Europe, the country has made some improvements.

But the Council of Europe has not let go of the murder itself. As recently as last month, the Council's reporter criticized the Maltese police for not turning over all the stones, as promised. In particular, the details of an intermediary who linked the person who ordered the murder to the men who placed the car bomb. The middleman is now arrested and has been promised by the prime minister for immunity against revealing who ordered the murder.

The European Parliament has also kept pressure on Malta. It has required an independent investigation of the murder and the hitherto unverified information on corruption right up to the country's absolute top tier. The same demands have also been set by the family, Daphne's sons. A businessman who was now taken aboard his yacht that was about to leave Malta must have had financial ties through shell companies to people in and around the government.

A lot remains to nail danger and snapping up. But exciting connections at least strengthen those who have long called for an independent investigation. After a long refusal, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has now had to give up. But being one of the last to realize the necessity of this will cause him and the government major problems. The opposition raises votes demanding his departure. And many wonder what might be hidden under Maltese rocks as a stormy winter approaches.