Updated 6.11pm with police HQ banner
A parliamentary debate on the Nationalist Party's motion aimed at forcing the government to order a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia will be held on 6 July, the party said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said government members should vote with the Opposition if they really wanted justice to be served.
Sofia was the only fatality of a building site collapse on December 3. He was found dead buried beneath the rubble of what was being developed into a timber factory. Five workers were rescued from the rubble, three of them seriously injured.
Calls for a public inquiry from the opposition and Sofia'a mother Isabelle Bonnici have been ignored.
Asked in parliament whether a public inquiry will be launched into the death of the 20-year-old, prime minister Robert Abela skirted the question saying there was an ongoing magisterial inquiry and investigations by other authorities.
Parliamentary debate on July 6 will be reserved for matters that the Opposition wishes to discuss. The PN decided to allocate its debating time to the Jean Paul Sofia inquiry following a parliamentary group meeting held on Tuesday.
The party said it was unacceptable for Sofia’s parents to remain in dark about what happened to their son because of the government’s intransigence and the stubbornness of the Prime Minister.
Speaking weeks after her son’s death Jean Paul’s mother, Isabelle Bonnici, called for a public inquiry into her son’s death.
She wants a public inquiry for the public authorities, herself, and her family to know what happened, with the hope that such a tragedy does not repeat itself.
"My life’s mission was my only son,” Bonnici told Times of Malta, “now my mission is to bring justice for him,” she said.
In her first on-camera interview since her son Jean Paul Sofia died six months ago, she told Times of Malta that she was initially told her son was alive when she had rushed to the site of a collapsed building in Corradino.
She later found out that he was, in fact, still buried under the rubble.
Banner hung outside police HQ
Bonnici continued her campaign for a public inquiry into her son's death on Wednesday afternoon, when she hung a red banner reading 'Who are you protecting?' at the entrance gates of the Police Headquarters in Floriana.
"I want to remind the Police Commissioner and the government that justice has still not been achieved for my son Jean Paul," she told reporters.
"The people who are guilty are still roaming free and they have sentenced us to a prison for the rest of our lives."
"I continue to insist for a public inquiry concerning the case, for every inquiry into workplace incidents to be published and for better laws and enforcement to avoid any more workplace tragedies. I don't want my son to have died in vain."
In a video posted to Facebook later on Wednesday, a police officer is seen speaking to Bonnici at the headquarters' entrance shortly after she stuck the banner. The street noise makes the conversation hard to understand but the officer appears to urge her to lodge a complaint through the official channels.