Valletta - The son of Malta's best-known
investigative journalist said on Tuesday his mother was killed
by a car bomb because of her work exposing political corruption,
as hundreds of people held a demonstration to demand justice.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote about graft across Malta's
political divides on her blog, died when explosives ripped
through her car minutes after she left her home in the north of
the island on Monday afternoon.
Maltese authorities were waiting for the arrival of Dutch
forensic experts and American FBI agents to help the
investigations.
"My mother was assassinated because she stood between the
rule of law and those who sought to violate it, like many strong
journalists," Matthew Caruana Galizia said on Facebook.
"She was also targeted because she was the only person doing
so," he added. He described rushing to the scene, only to find
the burning car and her remains.
On Tuesday afternoon, several hundred people demonstrated in
front of the law courts demanding justice for her killing.
"The state did not defend Daphne," shouted Andrew Borg
Cardona, addressing the crowd. He said those who accused her of
"going over the top" with her investigations "are all guilty".
One woman carried a votive lamp with the murdered
journalist's picture in it and another carried a sign that read
"Looks like we can't have freedom of speech but we want
justice".
Recently, Galizia had been following up leads from
information in the so-called Panama Papers, a large collection
of documents from an offshore law firm in the Central American
nation that were leaked in 2015.
She was tracing alleged links between Maltese officials and
offshore banks and companies used as tax havens.
Half an hour before the explosion, Galizia wrote on her
blog: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation
is desperate."
The European Commission told journalists it was horrified by
the murder in the bloc's smallest state and called for justice.
Spokesman Margaritis Schinas was asked if the Commission
would open an procedure to check if Malta was meeting the EU's
standards for the rule of law, a process now being applied to
Poland over judicial reforms there.
He replied: "We never speculate on these questions. These
are very serious subjects ... This is an outrageous act that
happened and what matters now is that justice will be brought.
"This is what we need to see."
Two explosions
The killing near the village of Bidnija stunned the
Mediterranean island. Authorities said it was the first murder
of a journalist there.
"I saw a small explosion coming from the car and I panicked.
A few seconds later, around three to four seconds, there was
another, larger explosion," said resident Frans Sant, who was
driving in the other direction.
"The car continued coming down the hill, skidding at high
speed, full of fire. The car missed me by around 10 feet. I
tried to help but the fire was too much and the car ended up in
the field," he told Reuters Television.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and opposition leader Adrian
Delia - who had both been criticised on Galizia's blog - both
condemned the killing.
"Everyone knows Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine,
both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this
barbaric act in any way," said Muscat, who had been suing her
over some of her allegations.
Opposition leader Adrian Delia called her killing an attack
on democracy and freedom of expression and demanded an
independent inquiry.
"We will not accept an investigation by the Commissioner of
Police, the Army commander or the duty magistrate, all of whom
were criticised by Caruana Galizia," he said on Monday.