The Nationalist Party will continue to defend freedom of expression and association, although today these carry a different meaning to what they did 30 years ago right in the middle of the political chaos that existed in Malta, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said.

He was speaking during a commemoration ceremony of events that occurred in Malta in late 1986, when the PN was prevented from exercising its right to hold a mass meeting in Zejtun by Socialist thugs with the help of the police and, a week later, the killing of PN activist Raymond Caruana at the Gudja PN club.

Dr Busuttil said these freedoms are defended when the free media is defended when it unveils scandals, when we work to have courts of law that are just and when the police investigate particular situations.

He said Raymond Caruana is a hero and that his funeral was attended by people of different political colour who realised that Malta could not continue on the road it had taken in those years.

The activity organised by the PN included the laying of flowers at the foot of Raymond Caruana’s grave.