The 16th of October 2017 was a dark day in our history. That afternoon, just under half a kilo of trinitrotoluene was remotely ignited under the driver’s seat of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who needs no introduction.
For over 25 months since then, her family and civil society grappled daily with the fact that the mastermind behind the assassination was still at large, seemingly immune to the law.
On Wednesday, a yacht was prevented from leaving territorial waters in the early hours of the morning. The owner of that yacht is Yorgen Fenech. At the same time Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family was fighting for justice, he was living the highlife at least in part, off the earnings of deals struck with the administration of Joseph Muscat – until the Armed Forces caught him fleeing the country.
Mr Fenech’s identity is of vital importance. Before resigning his directorships 6 days before his arrest, he ran one of the island’s most powerful business empires. His interests coincided with the Labour government’s biggest projects, namely an obscure deal with an Azeri power provider from whom gas is purchased at the taxpayer’s expense.
Behind this project lies the jewel of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s reporting, and the sordid corporate web implicating Joseph Muscat’s closest allies. Mr Fenech owns 17 Black, one of two Dubai companies that reported to feature in the business plans for Panamanian companies owned by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, the Prime Minister’s indispensable helpers. Their companies would have received substantial funds from Mr Fenech.
When the Panama Papers broke in 2016, Joseph Muscat defended them. He has continued to do so since and does so even now.
We are in the impossible position wherein the Prime Minister is personally negotiating presidential pardons in a case where his chief of staff is a business partner with the main suspect. No doubt remains of his complicity. He must resign.
Daphne Caruana Galizia may have been killed two years ago, but her story starts before the 2013 general election. Even before Joseph Muscat became the new Prime Minister, members of his team had already begun plotting to make themselves very rich off the backs of honest Maltese citizens. By no means did her story end with Mr Fenech’s arrest on his luxury yacht.
Her assassins used enough explosive to scatter parts of the car across Bidnija’s fields. They made sure to use enough to stop her heart beating and to send a message. But no amount of violence could ever kill her voice.
Journalists and civil society across Europe, along with the European institutions, have been battling since that day to prove just that. For over 25 months, activists stood up to be counted in a toxic climate of impunity that led to Daphne’s death in the first place.
Over the past two years, Muscat led efforts to discredit Daphne Caruana Galizia and the activists who picked up from where she left off. Libel lawsuits instigated by the Prime Minister remained open against her, used as a bargaining chip to bully her family into submission. Organised hate groups were used to target those who stood up to be counted. A memorial set up to remember her is destroyed daily on authority of Owen Bonnici, the Minister for Justice.
There are too many instances of corruption to count, from abuse of power and patronage, to money-laundering and organised crime implicating officials in the highest ranks of government.
The shockwaves from that terrible explosion impacted the nation and exposed the rot at the heart of our institutions. Those shockwaves cracked our democracy and the human rights of each and every European citizen. News spread around Europe and the world. A dot on the map of the world became known as the place where journalists were killed and where freedom of expression was dwindling.
Our reputation was tarnished, and by defending the indefensible, Muscat has continued to drag Malta’s name through the gutter. His insistence to save his own spine has done untold harm to our institutions, despite his claims to the contrary. The damage needs to be repaired, and it starts with his resignation.
Fenech’s arrest could be a key moment in the fight for justice. But this is by no means closure to the saga of darkness that has claimed Malta. Daphne’s life’s work must be continued. As a nation, we must honour and strive not just for what she stood for, but what she was murdered fighting for. We will do this by fighting against corruption and against money-laundering and by demanding more press freedom in Malta and in the EU.
Muscat’s propaganda machine tried pushing the line that Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered for her abrasive style of journalism. It was only a testament to her commitment against corruption. All of Muscat’s narratives are crumbling one by one.
The truth, as it has always been, stands more prominently than ever: Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed to hide the corruption of people at the highest levels of power in Malta. She was right all along.