The family of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is calling for the immediate prosecution of Keith Schembri, who resigned this morning from the post of chief of staff in the OPM.

"Three years after our wife and mother revealed Keith Schembri’s financial crimes, two years after her assassination, Schembri has resigned as the Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff.

"We now urge the Maltese authorities to immediately prosecute Schembri for his wide-ranging and long-running criminal activity.

"We urge Europol to provide the required, essential support to investigators, prosecutors and magistrates who are attempting to follow the money trail of the Malta-Azerbaijan money laundering network across jurisdictions, including especially the United Arab Emirates.

"As the authorities finally turn to Schembri, we urge them to uncover why Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has protected him and Konrad Mizzi for three years.

"The failure to prosecute Schembri, Mizzi and their protectors had fatal consequences for our wife and mother.

"If that failure continues, it will have fatal consequences for Malta’s democracy," the statement said.