Daphne Caruana Galizia’s gruesome murder had ingredients of a mafia-style killing, according to Italian politician Antonio Di Pietro.

In an interview with the Times of Malta (in Italian), Dr Di Pietro said it was evident that it was not an occasional crime but seemed like a professional homicide.

“It was professional and a classic mafia-style homicide. Mafia’s style is intimidation. The target was not only poor Caruana Galizia, who was killed, but all those around her because it was a clear warning: be careful or you’ll suffer the same fate,” he said.

Daphne exposed serious truths on things that people wanted to remain secret

“It is not only important to find out who did it but more important who was behind it.”

“Daphne was not killed because she used her blog for gossip but because she was exposing serious truths on things that people wanted to remain secret, such as what we saw in Panama Papers.”

Dr Di Pietro was a prosecutor in his country’s anti-corruption ‘Mani Pulite’ trials. In the 1990s, he exposed corruption and was the mastermind of the Tangentopoli inquiry, leading to various reforms in the Italian political system.

Dr Di Pietro was in Malta to address a demonstration, again organised by the Civil Society Network after Mrs Caruana Galizia’s murder on October 16.

Sunday’s event, attended by a few hundred people, was also addressed by writer Immanuel Mifsud, journalist Caroline Muscat and Civil Society Network activist Miriam Galea.