Government 'must go beyond lip service' in implementing Caruana Galizia inquiry recommendations, Graffitti says

The conclusions and recommendations of the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry report are being undermined as the government pays lip service while deflecting its responsibility, Moviment Graffitti has warned. 

The NGO said the report found evidence of the deep, intimate, and inappropriate ties between the highest levels of public administration and big business.

These ties led to the "grave actions committed by elements of the state, centrally orchestrated from the Office of the Prime Minister, to shackle and silence Daphne Caruana Galizia because her journalism was a threat to the powerful financial interests arising from the incestuous marriage between politics and business," Moviment Graffitti said. 

The NGO said that it was important to point out Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis's responsibility to guarantee the rule of law by ensuring that those who broke the law, whoever they are, whatever political and economic power, are brought to justice. 

"The board of inquiry concluded that the manifest reality revealed throughout the proceedings is that, for the State, the interests of private business take precedence over the public good," the civil society group said.

Despite this, the NGO said Zammit Lewis had been found to have some of the closest ties to alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech. 

"The same Minister for Justice claims to have a firm conviction that he has always acted with integrity, despite the board of inquiry’s conclusion that no member of that Parliamentary Group acted with integrity in choosing to defend the indefensible actions of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri," it said. 

Moviment Graffitti said it was "inconceivable" that a State found to have facilitated an assassination through the many and widespread instances of dereliction of responsibility that led to private interests being given a higher priority than the public good can hope to fix the situation through a Minister whose deep, intimate, and inappropriate relationship to those same private interests is documented, public, and pathetic.

"Minister Edward Zammit Lewis’s 'firm conviction' of his own integrity is irrelevant. We have seen enough assurances, beliefs, and convictions unravelling under the weight of evidence to the contrary over the last years," the NGO said. 

The civil society group said if Malta continues to trust these compromised individuals, then "we will all be a Ġaħan."

"This is no time for business as usual, and the extensive conclusions and recommendations laid out by the board of inquiry need to be acted on with due urgency and dedication. There are many structural improvements to be made, but Yorgen Fenech’s bosom buddy should not be the one making them," the NGO said.

The report, which is 437-pages long, concluded that a culture of impunity was created. The tentacles of impunity spread to regulatory bodies and the police, which led to the rule of law collapses.

The State and its entities failed to acknowledge the “real and immediate” risk, including through the criminal actions of third parties, to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s life.

The board found that the state failed to take the necessary measures to avoid this risk.

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