Ten people have been arrested in Malta over the murder of the investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese prime minister has said.
Caruana Galizia, who was a relentless critic of corruption in the country, died in October in a powerful car bomb blast yards from her home.
Joseph Muscat, the prime minister, said in an early morning press conference that there was “reasonable suspicion” that the individuals were involved in the murder. The police have 48 hours to question the suspects and decide whether to prosecute or release them. At least eight of the suspects were Maltese citizens.
Muscat offered his “personal commitment” that no stone would be left unturned in finding who commissioned and then executed the killing. The prime minister did not offer any details about what evidence had been found or how the individuals were possibly connected to the crime, but he pointed to work that had been done by the FBI, Europol, and Finnish security services to help the police.
Matthew Caruana Galizia, the son of the murdered journalist, who is also a reporter, told the Guardian that his family were “in the dark” about the arrests and had not been offered any information. The family, he said, received a phone call from a magistrate’s office after the arrests were known but did not have additional details.
The Maltese government’s handling of the investigation has been a source of controversy because of allegations that it has not been impartial or independent.
Caruana Galizia’s family have taken legal action against the Maltese police force and asked for the chief police investigator in the case, Silvio Valletta, to be removed from the investigation because he is married to a top government minister. Both were subjects of Caruana Galizia’s critical reporting. The police have not responded to the legal claim.
The family have alleged that her murder was a “targeted killing” of a journalist whose work focused on uncovering “corruption, criminality, conflicts of interest and ethical failures in decision making” by politicians and their associates. The most significant investigations by the murdered journalist stemmed from the Panama Papers, a leak of documents from the archives of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. Malta’s government is offering a €1m reward for information relating to the killing.
The family have raised a number of other concerns about the investigation, saying inquiries appear to be focusing only on forensic evidence, rather than examining financial transactions that could uncover vital evidence.
They also suggest leaks from within the police are potentially intimidating those who might come forward with information.
A top prosecutor in Italy, Carmelo Zuccaro, has said that he believed the journalist’s murder could be linked to a fuel-smuggling investigation that he is leading that spans Libya, Malta, and Italy and involves organised crime groups in Sicily. Caruana Galizia wrote articles in the past about people who are linked to the investigation.
Italian authorities made a series of arrests days after Caruana Galizia’s murder but none of those arrested have been formally accused of any involvement in the journalist’s death.
Politicians across Europe have questioned the rule of law in Malta, the smallest of the European Union’s member states.
Last week, MEPs who were dispatched to Malta on a fact-finding mission said they arrived “seriously concerned” about the rule of law on the island and were leaving “even more worried”.
The delegation said an apparent reluctance to investigate and prosecute major cases had created a “perception of impunity”.
Last month, Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president of the European commission, issued a strongly worded warning to the country.
Responding to a public letter from eight of the world’s largest media organisations, including the New York Times, the BBC and the Guardian, he said: “The eyes of Europe are on the Maltese authorities … We want those directly and indirectly responsible for this horrible murder to be brought to justice.
Muscat initially said on Monday that police made eight arrests, and then announced on Twitter that two other suspects had been arrested.
The police operations took place in Marsa, where other car bombings have occurred. Other raids were carried out in a village in central Malta called Zebbug and the northern town of St Paul’s Bay.
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