Mintoff, Karin and Raymond photos appear on Valletta shrine for Daphne Caruana Galizia

A photograph of the late Labour prime minister Dom Mintoff, much reviled by the assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has appeared near her photo at the shrine on the Great Siege monument in Valletta.

Photographs of Mintoff, and Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana – the latter two assassinated in politically-motivated murders – were found near the photo of Caruana Galizia, who was killed four months ago by a car bomb. Three men have since been charged with carrying out the execution.

The photographs appeared on the shrine amidst disagreement about whether the memorial should be removed from the Antonio Sciortino masterpiece.

Karin Grech was murdered by a parcel bomb sent to her father Prof. Edwin Grech in 1977, as retribution for being a strike-breaker during the doctors’ strike under the then Labour administration. Raymond Caruana was murdered in 1986 when unknown assailants shot at the PN party club in Gudja. Both crimes remain unsolved.

Earlier this month, Ray Azzopardi, a Labour councillor in the Valletta local council filed a motion calling for the removal of the Caruana Galizia shrine. But Valletta Major Alexiei Dingli deemed the motion ‘inadmissible’ during a disorderly local council meeting earlier this week, saying the council was not responsible for the national monument.

The action also provoked a reaction from Corinne Vella, Caruana Galizia’s sister, who remarked that whoever placed the photos had “underscored the message that some people die a natural death while others are killed before their time, some targetted personally, others because they just happened to be there.”

Her sister was assassinated in a “spectacular act of impunity,” Vella said, and Grech and Caruana had been killed because there happened to be where they were.

Read also: Life imitates art in Malta as three billboards call for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia

The meeting, which was characterised by loud and heated exchanges, saw twelve speakers, including Caruana Galizia’s widow Peter Caruana Galizia, make their arguments on whether to leave in place the numerous flowers, candles and images of the journalist which have been put in front of the Great Siege monument.

Newspaper Illum spoke to Labour councillor Norman Shaw, who disagreed with Azzopardi’s motion to remove the memorial.

An event organised by the Civil Society Network, l-Awturi, il-Kenniesa and #OccupyJustics will take place tonight, four months after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed. The event, called 'Demanding Justice' will take place in front of the memorial.