Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who had led the investigation into the ‘Panama Papers’ and alleged corruption within political circles in Malta, was killed Monday after her car exploded soon after she left her home in Bidnija, close to the town of Mosta.
CNN (@cnn) reports that Galizia’s blog “Running Commentary” was one of the most influential within Maltese Politics. It was a leading factor prompting Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to call early elections four months ago after she alleged that he and his wife were linked to the Panama Papers scandal. The couple denied the allegations that they had used secret offshore bank accounts to hide payments from the ruling family of Azerbaijan. In her blog, the 53 year-old journalist regularly reported on allegations of corruption across the country’s political sphere.
Galizia’s son Matthew who is also a journalist doesn’t think his mother’s death was an accident. He thinks it was murder. Matthew Galizia said that his mother’s death “was no ordinary murder.” Matthew said that his mother was assassinated because of her work uncovering corruption. In a post on Facebook on Tuesday, Matthew described how he ran toward his mother’s car after hearing the explosion outside of their home, only to see “my mother’s body parts all around me.” Matthew said that his mother had been targeted. He added that a “culture of impunity has been allowed to flourish by the government in Malta.”
