Malta prime minister expected to quit in crisis over journalist murder

Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has told associates he plans to resign over the political and legal crisis stemming from the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Times of Malta reported on Friday.

Muscat’s spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the report. His Labour Party cancelled an event scheduled for Sunday at which Muscat was set to speak.

Muscat’s chief of staff and two members of the cabinet have already stepped aside this week over the murder case, which threatens to bring down the tiny country’s close-knit elite.

Caruana Galizia, a campaigning journalist who investigated corruption, was blown up by a car bomb on Oct. 16, 2017. Her family demanded on Friday that Muscat resign, after his right hand man Keith Schembri was set free overnight.

Schembri, who quit as Muscat’s chief of staff and was held for questioning in the case this week, denies wrongdoing. Police said they no longer needed him in custody for their investigation.

Earlier on Friday, Muscat’s cabinet turned down a request to pardon a businessman, Yorgen Fenech, over the murder in return for testimony that Fenech’s lawyers said would implicate senior government figures, including Schembri.

Fenech, who was arrested last week while trying to leave the island in his yacht, was also freed on bail on Friday. He appeared in court later for a hearing at which he hopes to have his request for a pardon sent directly to the president.

Fenech’s lawyers called for the chief investigator in the case, Keith Arnaud, to be removed, arguing Arnaud was too close to Schembri. Marion Camillieri, a lawyer for Fenech, said Schembri had helped Arnaud’s wife get a job and Arnaud had been passing information about the investigation to Schembri.

“There can be no justice when you have an investigation officer so close to one of the people you are investigating.”

Caruana Galizia’s family said Muscat must resign rather than preside over an investigation that implicates three of his closest colleagues.

“This travesty of justice is shaming our country, ripping our society apart, and it is degrading us. It cannot continue any longer,” the family said.

Family members and their supporters staged a vigil outside the government headquarters where a meeting took place on Fenech’s immunity request. As one minister was driven away, one of Caruana Galizia’s sons hurled fruit at his car and shouted obscenities.

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 case has moved quickly in recent weeks, since a middleman suspected of introducing the killers to the person who ordered the hit was pardoned in return for testimony. Within days, authorities had arrested Fenech.

(REUTERS)