A makeshift memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia in Valletta was cleared of portraits and placards on the day two men accused of supplying the bomb that killed her went on trial, activists have said. 

The incident appears to be the latest chapter in a months-long battle between activists who have maintained the memorial for years and Labour blogger Neville Gafà, who has been placing his own placards at the site in what he describes as an exercise in free speech.

Occupy Justice’s Ann Demarco said photos, candles, and placards they had left at the shrine, outside the law courts building on Valletta’s Republic Street, were removed and replaced with "placards denigrating Daphne".

Activists found the missing placards and photos behind the monument. Demarco said fragments of broken glass on the floor was a sign that one of the frames containing a portrait was trampled on. 

“This happened on the day that the trial of the alleged bomb suppliers began, a day when Daphne’s family were forced to sit in court, listening to horrendous descriptions of what happened to their daughter, wife, sister, mother, aunt,” Demarco said. 

She said the removal of the shrine was "morally obscene and disgusting" and also "illegal", given a 2020 Constitutional Court judgment. 

Gafà: Nobody speaks when my placards are removed

Gafà confirmed to Times of Malta that the placards placed at the monument were his. He declined to comment when asked if he had removed others to make way for them.

"They always remove my placards, but no one ever says anything when they are removed" he said. "No one ever questions whether I have a right to do so."

Gafa wrote on his blog last week that "extremists" had removed placards he placed at the monument. 

"We have the same right to expression as the Daphne crowd," he wrote. 

As of Saturday morning, the makeshift memorial featured placards placed by both sides: some honouring Caruana Galizia, placed by Occupy Justice activists, and others denigrating her placed there by Gafà.

The state of the memorial now, with photos and placards about Caruana Galizia placed by both activists and Gafà. Photo: Ann Demarco

High-profile trial

The clash comes in a week when a high-profile trial related to Caruana Galizia’s murder began.

Brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, better known as Ta’ Maksar, along with associates Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio all stand accused of various roles in that murder and the 2015 killing of lawyer Carmel Chircop. All four deny the charges. 

Caruana Galizia was blown up as she drove away from her Bidnija home in October 2017. Two of the four men standing trial are alleged to have provided the bomb that was used to kill her. Degiorgio has separately pleaded guilty to being one of the hitmen. 

Photos and posters of Daphne Caruana Galizia found behind the memorial. Photo: Ann Demarco

'The monument against Daphne has been made'

The Great Siege monument opposite the law courts has hosted a memorial to Caruana Galizia since her assassination.

The memorial site was cleared several times in ensuing years by government employees acting on the orders of then-Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, until a constitutional court ruled that those orders breached protesters' rights. Bonnici would eventually say he regretted giving those orders.  

The shrine was then left undisturbed for years until October 2024, when Gafà began placing placards of his own at the site. 

A smashed frame left at the memorial site. Photo: Ann Demarco

Gafà has described the constitutional court sentence in activists’ favour as “ridiculous” and nothing but a recipe for anarchy.

Calling the stunt a test of free speech, he argued that the constitutional court judgment meant anyone could use any public monument as a protest site.

Gafà says he intends to continue placing placards there until the site is no longer used as a makeshift shrine to the murdered journalist. 

"If the extremists want to clean it, we will continue to make it a monument against Daphne," he said on Saturday.