New York, February 25, 2021 – In response to the sentencing of one of the suspects in Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s 2017 murder, as well as new indictments for additional suspects, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
“We welcome the first sentencing in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s case as a long-awaited step towards justice in one of Europe’s most prominent journalist killings,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Maltese authorities should take all measures to ensure that all the perpetrators of this crime, including its masterminds, are brought to justice.”
Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017.
On February 23, one of the defendants, Vincent Muscat, plead guilty of murder and other crimes related to the killing, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, local media reported. Muscat renounced his right to appeal the sentence, news reports said.
Yesterday evening, police charged two additional suspects, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, with complicity in the killing for allegedly supplying the bomb, according to news reports. Following those arrests, Maltese National Police Chief Angelo Gafa said that “every person involved, be it mastermind or accomplice, is under arrest or facing charges,” The Guardian reported, stating that seven men have either admitted to or been charged with complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder.