Vigil for Caruana Galizia after top police brass embroiled in investigation

A vigil for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia will take place Tuesday evening, as Malta reels from the revelations inside court that have now led to the formal investigation of former Commissioner of Police Lawrence Cutajar.

Yesterday activists from the Occupy Justice NGO unfurled a banner on Castille Square outside the Office of the Prime Minister, saying ‘Corruption Is A Virus’, saying Malta had failed “miserably” at fighting corruption.

“Is this the same ‘normality’ that was promoted by the disgraced Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, together with his cronies since 2013? Is this the same corrupt, mafia-inspired “normality” that led to the assassination of a journalist? Is this the same “normality” that allowed for implicated public figures to be protected by the system, by the police, and by the judicial institutions?” the NGO asked,

“COVID-19 may be under control, but corruption is alive kicking and spreading by the day, and Prime Minister Robert Abela seems to have neither the inclination nor the will to stop this spread.”

The NGO took to task Abela for appointing Joseph Muscat as an economic advisor. “Anyone who follows the media is conscious of the number of times that Keith Schembri’s name has come up during court testimonies,” the NGO said of Muscat’s former chief of staff.

“So why has Schembri not been arrested? Perhaps because the virus has also spread thick and fast within the highest ranks of our police force. It is now more than evident that protestors were right in calling for the removal of the likes of Silvio Valletta and Lawrence Cutajar, ex-deputy police commissioner and the ex-top man himself, respectively, both also mentioned repeatedly in court proceedings.

“What has come to light is sickening and shows that these two individuals were actively contaminating any form of progress in the investigations.”