[WATCH] Encourage your MPs to support a truth and justice commission, PD tells voters

The Democratic Party is urging people to pressure MPs to vote for a proposal it put forward for an independent commission to carry out inquiries into the murders of Karin Grech, Raymond Caruana and Daphne Caruana Galizia.

PD secretary general Martin Cauchi Inglott says the proposal put forward by the party’s two MPs during last Thursday’s parliamentary debate on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, seeks to create a fully independent truth and justice commission.

Cauchi Inglott appealed to all MPs to support the PD’s proposal and urged voters to pressure their representatives.

The appeal, made in a Sunday message broadcast on Facebook, follows the amendments to the Inquiries Act tabled in Parliament by the PD MPs. The proposal is to create a Truth and Justice Commission headed by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.

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The Commission would work with a panel of Malta’s most senior judges in appointing three public inquiries that would examine the circumstances of the murders of Karin Grech, Raymond Caruana and Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“The inquiries will not replace the criminal investigations currently underway. We support the work of the police,” Cauchi Inglott said.

He said the role of the commission would be to “establish how we failed each of these three victims and bring closure to their families”.

Under the proposal, a panel made up of representatives of the victims’ families would be actively involved in setting up the inquiries and following the proceedings.

A final copy of each report prepared by the Truth and Justice Commission would be made available to the victims’ panel for review and comment before publication.

Parliament is expected to vote on these proposals on Wednesday. The proposal was put forward as an amendment to the Nationalist Party motion calling for an inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder that would be appointed by a two-thirds parliamentary majority and would eventually report to the House.

The government has also put forward a counter motion, insisting that a public inquiry at this stage was not necessary until the criminal and magisterial inquiries still underway are concluded.