The Police Force has been given a blank cheque to do whatever it takes to solve the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia has told The Malta Independent.

Farrugia acknowledged that as a Ministry they “are responsible to improve upon crime prevention and to ascertain that the police do all that is possible to solve criminal acts”.

“As a Minister, I have given a blank cheque to the Police Force to do whatever it takes, and to facilitate to their request to bring over experts specialised in these kinds of criminality to assist in the investigative process carried out by the Police.”

The Minister was sent questions asking why foreign experts were only called in now, when there have been six car bombings in Malta since 2016, three of which have resulted in fatalities; and whether their invitation implied that the Police Force did not have the resources to handle such cases.

He insisted that “investigations re the other car bombs are still ongoing and have never stopped,” but did not answer the first question specifically.

Last August, the same minister confirmed with the newsroom that no foreign investigators had been contacted for assistance when it came to the previous five cases.

Farrugia dodged a question concerning the possibility of Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar’s resignation, instead implying that this will not happen when saying that “at present, the responsibility of the Police Commissioner is to coordinate the necessary investigations together with his officials to solve this crime and any other.”