Lawyer and former Labour minister Joseph Brincat has filed a note in the records of the Caruana Galizia public inquiry, drawing the board’s attention to the assassinated journalist’s critical view on police protection.

Attaching screenshots from the journalist’s blog, wherein she had “ridiculed” former law commissioner and MP Franco Debono for seeking such protection after some of her own writings in his regard, Brincat said that he wanted to shed light upon Caruana Galizia’s “philosophy regarding the protection which the State could have offered her.”

The terms of reference of the inquiry state clearly that the board is to determine whether “any wrongful action or omission” by the State “facilitated the assassination or failed to prevent it.”

The issue of police protection, or lack of it, has been constantly questioned by the board, particularly when faced with the testimonies of a successive line of former police commissioners.

Brincat pointed out that in one of her Running Commentary posts, Caruana Galizia had said that she refused police protection that was offered to her pre-2013 because “you never know who or what those constables are (they change on a shift basis) and even if they don’t report back to base they’re not immune to reporting to their friends and relatives.”  

That explanation had been followed by a discussion wherein it was argued that dogs were more important than police officers, Brincat pointed out in his note, filed in the records of the inquiry on Monday.