Certainly, it is only the judgment of a commission of inquiry without jurisdiction.
Nevertheless, the verdict is devastating: The Maltese government under the then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is largely responsible for the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on October 16, 2017. Therefore, "the state should take responsibility for the attack," it says a nearly 440-page report by the commission, led by retired judge Michael Mallia, presented in Valletta on Thursday evening.
Hundreds of demonstrators had followed the publication in front of the seat of government and parliament. The report said that the government led by the Social Democratic Labor Party had created an "atmosphere of impunity" with "tentacles" reaching institutions such as the police and regulators. This led to the "breakdown of the rule of law" in Malta. Although the government was aware of the death threats against the country's most famous journalist, it did nothing to protect her.
The verdict of the commission is clear: in the late period of the Joseph Muscat era, who took over the leadership of the Labor Party in June 2008 and became prime minister in March 2013, Malta was no longer the rule of law. Muscat himself, who had to resign in January 2020 after weeks of demonstrations, does not want to hear about this. In an initial response, he announced that the commission had found no evidence of direct government involvement in the bloody act; he himself paid the “highest political price” with his resignation.
That's correct. It is also true, however, that Muscat and other members of the government and party have covered Daphne Caruana Galizia with complaints because the reporter has repeatedly highlighted the felt between the government, the business world and the demi-world. It is true that the commission of inquiry was only set up in Valletta because of pressure from the European Parliament and against the opposition of the government. And the truth is that the alleged perpetrators of the murder have not been convicted just four years after the car bomb attack; only one of the hired killers received a 15-year prison sentence.
During Malta's presidency in the first half of 2017, the Muscat government sold the island nation as a model student under the rule of law. In Brussels and major EU capitals, people were lulled by the singing of sirens. Meanwhile in Valletta the murder plot was forged against an intrepid journalist.