Anti-corruption NGO Repubblika has filed a judicial protest against former OPM official Neville Gafa, accusing him of attempting to undermine a long-standing civic protest at the Great Siege Monument in Valletta, held in memory of assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The protest, filed in court on Friday, centres on Gafa's recent social media posts and public statements, which Repubblika claims threaten the peaceful protest that has been in place since the day Caruana Galizia was murdered.
According to the judicial protest, Gafa publicly expressed his intention to block access to the site and to remove objects placed there as part of the memorial. Repubblika also alleges that Gafa encouraged others, including individuals under criminal investigation or who have made defamatory claims about the protest, to join him in disrupting the site.
Repubblika describes Gafa's actions as part of a deliberate campaign to "stifle" freedom of expression and labelled them as being taken "in bad faith". The group said it has been left feeling intimidated and threatened by Gafa's conduct, which it argues constitutes repeated illegal interference in their rights.
The NGO insists that the protest space is a symbolic site for civic expression, aimed at demanding truth and justice for Caruana Galizia's murder and uncovering alleged corruption. It says Gafa's alleged attempts to smear the memorial and the protestors' intentions amount to a direct attack on citizens' rights to peaceful assembly and expression.
Repubblika said it was compelled to act without prior notice and has reserved the right to seek damages and to present expert witnesses or further evidence in any future legal proceedings.
The judicial protest is the latest development in the ongoing struggle over the space surrounding the monument, which has become a focal point for calls for justice and transparency since Caruana Galizia's killing.
In October 2024, on the eve of the seventh anniversary of her murder, Gafa placed placards with unflattering news headlines about Daphne Caruana Galizia at the memorial for the slain journalist.
Writing about the stunt on his blog, Gafa said, "Now the time has come to see whether they (ta' Daphne) respect others' freedom of expression."
When the memorial was set up, the Labour administration kept cleaning up the flowers and posters left at the Great Siege monument. The clean-ups, often viewed as deliberate attempts to rile activists, stopped after Robert Abela's election as Labour prime minister in January 2020.