16 October, 2017
Malta is rocked by the news that journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been assassinated by a car bomb near her Bidnija home.
The murder drew widespread condemnation. In the evening, thousands gathered in a candlelight vigil in Sliema showing solidarity with the family of the murdered journalist.
17 October, 2017
Experts from across the globe, including the FBI, fly in to aid the investigation. Then Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, the duty magistrate at the time of the murder, steps down from the investigation after a request that she recuse herself from the investigation was submitted by Caruana Galizia’s family. She is replaced by Magistrate Anthony Vella.
19 October, 2017
Journalists from Malta’s media houses gather in Valletta in a show of solidarity following the murder.
22 October, 2017
Thousands gather in the streets of Valletta to honour the slain journalist. The Civil Society Network, founded in the wake of the murder, calls for the removal of the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General and for them to be replaced with two other nominees approved by two-thirds of Parliament.
23 October, 2017
A parliamentary motion by the Opposition to discuss the Civil Society Network’s calls for their resignation is refused by the government side of the House, causing commotion in the plenary sitting.
24 October, 2017
A minute’s silence is observed in the European Parliament as MEPs pay tribute to Caruana Galizia and EP President Antonio Tajani calls for Europol to be fully involved in the investigation.
3 November, 2017
Daphne Caruana Galizia is laid to rest.
14 November, 2017
MEPs debate a resolution on rule of law in Malta in the European Parliament, which passes with 466 votes in favour, 49 against and 160 abstentions.
The resolution, while non-binding, represents the resolve of the MEPs to bring Malta’s attention to the values of the EU, human rights, freedom of the press and the investigation of corruption allegations, now more pressing in the aftermath of Caruana Galizia’s assassination.
22 November, 2017
The Caruana Galizia family lodge a request with the Constitutional Court to remove Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta from the investigation, claiming a conflict of interest due to his marriage to government minister Justyne Caruana.
30 November to 1 December, 2017
An MEP delegation, led by Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Gomes, visits Malta on a two-day fact-finding mission focusing on the rule of law. Gomes reports that the delegation had more concerns after the visit than they did before it.
4 December, 2017
Eight individuals are arrested in the early hours of the morning in Marsa, following an operation involving the police and the Armed Forces. The Prime Minister confirms in a press conference that the arrests were made in connection with the Caruana Galizia murder. Later that morning, an additional two people are arrested, with the number of people detained now standing at 10.
5 December, 2017
Vince Muscat, 55, known as 'il-Kohhu', Alfred Degiorgio, 52, 'il-Fulu' and George Degiorgio, 54, 'ic-Ciniz' are charged with carrying out the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia with a bomb attached to her car. All three plead not guilty. The others, arrested on the previous day, are discharged.
14 December, 2017
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech accepts a request by the defence to recuse herself from hearing the compilation of evidence as she had been in the same class with Caruana Galizia’s sister decades ago. She is replaced by Magistrate Charmaine Galea.
18 December, 2017
Another false start in the compilation of evidence, as Magistrate Galea also recuses herself from the case based on articles that Caruana Galizia had written about her appointment, where the journalist had tied the appointment to a perceived closeness with the Labour government. Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit was appointed to replace Galea.
21 December, 2017
Magistrate Stafrace Zammit rules that there is enough prima facie evidence for the accused to stand trial for the murder charges presented against them and so the compilation of evidence begins.
18 January, 2018
Daphne Caruana Galizia’s heirs inform the court that they will be assuming all her pending libel cases. These notably include one instituted by the Prime Minister over a report that his wife was connected to an offshore company in Panama, and another instituted by Minister Chris Cardona, after Caruana Galizia reported that he had visited a brothel in Germany while on official state business.
29 January, 2018
Testifying in the constitutional case for his removal from the case, Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta says that a politically-exposed mastermind behind the murder could not be excluded and that nobody was above suspicion in the investigations.
2 February, 2018
Uproar ensues as a woman is caught on video removing flowers from a makeshift memorial to Caruana Galizia on the Great Siege monument opposite the Law Courts in Valletta. The issue surrounding the use of the monument would drag on till this day.
12 April, 2018
A laptop taken by investigators from Caruana Galizia's residence shows the last data was back in December 2015, meaning that she had been using another laptop when she was killed. Lawyers for the accused meanwhile requested bail for their clients, the first one of many such requests.
15 April, 2018
A consortium of 45 journalists from 18 news organisations, including internationally-reputable media houses such as The New York Times, The Guardian and Reuters, come together in a project called The Daphne Project to continue the murdered journalist’s most important stories.
17 April, 2018
Journalists from the Daphne Project break a story claiming to have spoken to two witnesses who saw Minister Chris Cardona talking to Alfred Degiorgio, one of the accused, both before and after Caruana Galizia was murdered. In the latter meeting, the two allegedly spoke for an hour-and-a-half, with the Minister looking “preoccupied”. Cardona categorically denies the story.
18 April, 2018
The Daphne Project breaks a second story, this time publishing leaked documents which claim that €1.3 million was transferred to 17 Black, a Dubai company listed as one of the “target clients” that would be paying money into the Panama companies belonging to government minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri. Both Mizzi and Schembri deny the report, while Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says that the best answer to the consortium’s allegations would be given at the Labour Party’s mass meeting on 1 May.
3 May, 2018
New revelations by the Daphne Project show how Malta was at the centre of a well-coordinated multi-million fuel smuggling operation, with stolen Libyan fuel traded easily in territorial waters and through established storage facilities inside the Grand Harbour and Birżebbuġa.
23 May, 2018
It is reported by the Daphne Project that the journalist’s two laptops had been handed over to the German police.
31 May, 2018
Minister Chris Cardona’s libel case against Caruana Galizia, relating to claims that he had visited a brothel in Germany while on an official state visit, is struck off the magistrate’s register after the minister failed to turn up in court and the defence submitted a formal cancellation request.
12 June, 2018
A judge rules that Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta should be removed from the case due to the potential conflict of interest.
25 June, 2018
Magistrate Neville Camilleri takes over the murder case after Magistrate Anthony Vella’s promotion to the bench.
27 June 27, 2018
The three accused of murdering Caruana Galizia appear before the Court once more, but this time on charges of money-laundering. Details of their lavish lifestyles, despite claiming to be unemployed, emerge in the following weeks and are also allegedly involved in questionable overseas payments.
8 September, 2018
Activists are incensed when the Great Siege monument, which was being used as a shrine for the murdered journalist, is boarded off for what Minister Owen Bonnici said was a restoration and cleaning effort. The monument was boarded up on the day that Malta’s victory in the Great Siege is commemorated.
24 September, 2018
One of the murder suspects, George Degiorgio, files a constitutional appeal saying that he had been framed, that his yacht was not positively identified and that there was no evidence that he was on it. Police had identified him as the person who allegedly remotely triggered the bomb from his yacht, the Maia, just outside the Grand Harbour.
5 October, 2018
The Court of Appeal confirms that Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta cannot be involved in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case.
8 October, 2018
The Daphne Project reveals another story, this time alleging that Chris Cardona had been present at a 40-person bachelor’s party with Alfred Degiorgio, one of those accused of the murder, some four months before the assassination. Cardona had claimed not recalling ever meeting the accused.
The report also claimed that in October 2016, Caruana Galizia had spoken to a ship-owner over alleged links to fuel smuggling and that, shortly after that call, the man had called Chris Cardona and Alfred Degiorgio.
9 October, 2018
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told the press that he saw no need for an independent inquiry into the killing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia when a magisterial inquiry is already being conducted.
10 October, 2018
MEPs from across political groups expressed their concern with the situation in Malta and demanded that the European Commission monitors the ongoing investigation. They supported the Caruana Galizia family’s request for an independent public inquiry.
11 October, 2018
PN Leader Adrian Delia issued a call for a special autonomous and independent commission.
14 October, 2018
The alleged telephone call between ship-owner Pierre Darmanin and Economy Minister Chris Cardona shortly after the former spoke with Daphne Caruana Galizia did not take place, according to local and foreign sources close to the investigation.
On the other hand, Darmanin really did call brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, two of the three men accused of killing the journalist, shortly after the phone call with the journalist, they said.
16 October, 2018
A year has passed since the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Activists and members of the public marched on Valletta’s Republic Street, demanding truth and justice on the first anniversary of the brutal slaying.
17 October, 2018
An international freedom of expression mission to Malta has expressed serious concern over the shortcomings of the Maltese government, raising concerns over a lack of “urgency” in the investigation into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the state of press freedom conditions of the country, once again reiterating calls for a public inquiry into whether the murder could have been prevented and to see what preventive measures can be implemented.
21 October, 2018
The alleged meeting between Economy Minister Chris Cardona and murder suspect Alfred Degiorgio at a Siggiewi bar never took place, news reports read, claiming that the person who had made the claim with the Daphne Project later admitted with the police that he had lied about the entire thing.
12 November, 2018
The instructions to dismantle the makeshift memorials to murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia were given by Minister Owen Bonnici over the phone to the Director General of the Cleansing Department, the court was told by the Director General.
27 November, 2018
The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom called the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia “an event which represented the darkest hour for media freedom and media pluralism in the European Union since the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre in France”.
5 December, 2018
George Degiorgio files a judicial letter, calling on the director of the Corradino Correctional Facility to arrange for medical intervention relating to a “painful condition” and claiming to be the “victim of inhuman and degrading treatment”.
6 June, 2019
A decision by the Court of Magistrates to allow FBI experts to testify in the compilation of evidence against the three men accused of murdering Caruana Galizia did not breach one of the accused’s right to a fair hearing, a court ruled.
11 June, 2019
Alfred and George Degiorgio’s request for a meeting with MEPs Ana Gomes and David Casa has been turned down by the Court.
26 June, 2019
A damning Council of Europe report on the rule of law in Malta was approved with 72 votes in favour, 18 against and three abstentions. It looked primarily into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, but notes that the weaknesses of the rule of law in general and the criminal justice system in particular are directly relevant to its analysis of the authorities’ response to the journalist’s brutal murder.
12 July, 2019
George and Alfred Degiorgio filed Constitutional proceedings asking the courts to declare that their fundamental right to a fair trial and their right to liberty and security have been breached by Peter Omtzigt’s report into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
16 July, 2019
Bill of indictment filed against Vince Muscat, George Degiorgio and Alfred Degiorgio, charged with the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, 21 months to the day since she was killed in a car-bomb near her home.
17 July, 2019
Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja, who was responsible for the Egrant inquiry, was drawn by lot to preside over the trial of the three men accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
12 August, 2019
Two of the men, who stand accused of planting a bomb used in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, demanded that the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and the head of the Security Services exhibit the phone intercepts and relative warrants which led to their arrests, arguing that a failure to do so would be a tacit admission that they either do not exist or had been obtained illegally.
26 August, 2019
The PN tells government to stop dragging its feet and launch a public independent inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
19 September, 2019
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat replied to a Council of Europe commissioner who urged him to drop libel proceedings against Daphne Caruana Galizia by stating that he had already formally said he would do so if the Caruana Galizia family make a declaration to the effect that they accept the findings of the Egrant inquiry.
“This independent inquiry, presided over by a magistrate, had exonerated me and my family from very serious accusations levelled against us by Ms Caruana Galizia and found that the documents that were supposed to prove wrongdoing were forged. The findings were immediately made public by the Attorney General,” Muscat said.
The family of the assassinated journalist said that, when Muscat had made this declaration originally in Court, it had already declared that it “will not concede to extortion by our public servants. Our position on not accepting blackmail will never change”.
20 September, 2019
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat appointed Judge Emeritus Michael Mallia to preside over the long-awaited Public Independent Inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The Commission is also composed of former Dean of the Faculty of Law and constitutional expert Professor Ian Refalo and forensic expert Dr Anthony Abela Medici. Criticism over the latter two members was registered.
22 September, 2019
Prime Minister Muscat said that he has full faith in the integrity and competence of the three people entrusted with carrying out an independent public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Concerns had been raised by the Caruana Galizia family, who requested a meeting with the PM, as well as by civil society NGOs. They have flagged, for example, the fact that Refalo has acted as lawyer to the government and also represented former Allied Newspapers managing director Adrian Hillman.
26 September, 2019
The Nationalist Party parliamentary group disagrees with the appointment of Ian Refalo and Anthony Abela Medici to form part of the public inquiry into the murder.
30 September, 2019
The public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia “clearly does not meet the Assembly’s expectations” as currently constituted, according to an information note by PACE rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt, which was endorsed by the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee.
6 October, 2019
The judge said to preside the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder trial recused himself. The reasons given for the recusal of Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja are not known, and Edwina Grima was selected as the judge to preside over the case.
7 October, 2019
Prime Minister Muscat shrugged off Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi’s suggestion that an early election was called in 2017 because plans to assassinate journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had already been hatched, describing the insinuation as “hogwash”.
9 October, 2019
One of the men charged with the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, George Degiorgio, filed a Constitutional case, arguing that incriminating phone intercepts used against him by the police, which were never exhibited by the prosecution, were obtained illegally and that consequently, all reference to them should be struck from the records of the case.