Malta government rejects immunity bid by businessman in journalist murder
by Temisan Amoye
The Malta government turned down a request from one of the island’s richest men on Friday for a pardon in return for his cooperation in the investigation into a journalist’s murder, after freeing a top official he was said to implicate.
After two years of stalled investigations, the authorities have moved rapidly in recent days in the case of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was blown up with a car bomb in 2017 while working on reports about official corruption.
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Her family responded with fury to the decision overnight to set free Keith Schembri, who quit this week as chief of staff to prime minister Joseph Muscat after being arrested in the case.
After a cabinet meeting that ended shortly before 3:00 a.m., Muscat’s government decided to reject a request for immunity by Yorgen Fenech, a businessman who was arrested last week while trying to leave Malta on his yacht.
In a separate case showing how corruption allegations have closed in on the government, a court-ordered three cabinet ministers on Friday to face a criminal probe over a hospital contract. Two of the ministers had already left the cabinet this week over links to Fenech as the murder case unfolded.
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Three men have been awaiting trial for setting the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia, but so far the authorities have failed to track down the person who hired them.
The arrest this week of Schembri, the prime minister’s right-hand man, has entangled top officials in the case, and Caruana Galizia’s family accuses the government of a cover-up.
Angry supporters of the family gathered outside the cabinet meeting in the early hours of the morning. As one minister was driven away, one of Caruana Galizia’s sons hurled fruit at his car and shouted obscenities.
Source: Reuters