Son of murdered Malta journalist accuses politicians of being 'complicit' in car bombing

The son of Malta’s leading investigative journalist has accused the country’s prime minister and senior politicians of being “complicit” in her murder after she was blown- up by a car bomb on Monday.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, who exposed corruption among Malta’s political elite, was killed when a massive bomb blew apart her car, shortly after she left her home in the north of the island.

Matthew Caruana Galizia said his mother was “assassinated because she stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it, like many strong journalists. But she was also targeted because she was the only person doing so.”

He had a blunt message for Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister, as well as the former British colony’s attorney-general, its police commissioner and senior politicians. “You are complicit. You are responsible for this,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

He gave a graphic account of rushing out of his home and finding the smoking remains of his mother’s car. 

It was blasted off a road and into an adjacent field near the village of Bidnija. “I am never going to forget, running around the inferno in the field, trying to figure out a way to open the door, the horn of the car still blaring, screaming at two policemen who turned up with a single fire extinguisher to use it. 

“They stared at me. ‘I’m sorry, there is nothing we can do’, one of them said. I looked down and there were my mother’s body parts all around me. I realised they were right, it was hopeless.”

He said his mother’s murder was a result of state institutions being “incapacitated”. Mrs Caruana Galizia had made enemies both in the government and in the ranks of the opposition for her exposure of corruption and cronyism through a widely-read blog, Running Commentary.

Experts from the FBI and the Dutch police were expected to start combing through the wreckage of the car bombing on Tuesday. The forensic experts were invited in by Mr Muscat, who told parliament: "I have given them no limits." 

The prime minister and Adrian Delia, the leader of the opposition, both of whom have been criticised in the past by the journalist, condemned the killing.

Mr Delia called the murder an attack on democracy 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.

Around 3,000 people held a silent, candle-lit vigil on Monday night in Sliema, just outside the capital Valletta.

In his Facebook post, the journalist’s son said that the state had become “indistinguishable” from organised crime.

He condemned a police officer for apparently celebrating the killing by writing on social media: “Everyone gets what they deserve, cow dung! Feeling happy.”

The murder was condemned by the European Commission. "We are horrified by the fact that the well-known and respected journalist Mrs Daphne Caruana Galizia lost her life yesterday in what was seemingly a targeted attack," Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a news briefing.

"The right of a journalist to investigate, ask uncomfortable questions and report effectively is at the heart of our values and needs to be guaranteed at all times."