Malta still lacks the competence or will to prosecute anyone close to political leadership, Matthew Caruana Galizia has said on the fourth anniversary of his mother’s assassination.

In an interview with Times of Malta, the son of the murdered journalist said that while the homicide squad has carried out “incredible work”, he remains deeply sceptical about the will to solve government corruption.

“We have not yet seen the prosecution of Konrad Mizzi (former energy minister), Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri (former chief of staff to the prime minister) for high-level corruption,” he said.

“The situation as it was back then persists in the sense that we do not have the capability and political will to prosecute those who are close to the political leadership of the country.”

He reiterates his view that if Mizzi, Schembri and former prime minister Joseph Muscat had been investigated when his investigative journalist mother exposed corruption, she would still be alive. 

“But if the situation were to repeat itself today, the same thing would happen. Think of all the evidence that has been put out since her murder and the people still haven’t been prosecuted.” Caruana Galizia was planning an exposé on the Electrogas energy supply deal when she was blown up in a car bomb outside her home in Bidnija on October 16, 2017.

Since then, six people have been charged in relation to her murder, including Electrogas shareholder Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of masterminding the assassination. 

The journalist’s son has previously described the horror of being the first person on the scene, finding the body of his mother in pieces and her car turned into an inferno.

“I’ve woken up every day since with a feeling that a part of me is permanently missing. It was like that from the very first day. That will never change,” he said. 

But the data journalist, who worked alongside his mother to uncover Labour government corruption, misconduct and nepotism, said he still shares his mother’s “compulsion” to expose people who should be public servants using their power to enrich themselves.

“For me it is a journey that started way back in 2013 and we just kept going after the murder,” he said. 

“Of course, it was extremely challenging: you live through the experience of seeing your mother murdered and then gather the strength to carry on. 

“You cannot separate her murder from the corruption she was investigating. The investigation into her murder dovetails with the investigation into corruption. They are like two lanes in the same road.”

Matthew Caruana Galizia and his mother, Daphne.

Son fears family will be left alone to fight

Four years on, he, like his mother before him, faces harassment. 

This week, his voicemail was accessed, a message from a delivery worker downloaded and shared on a WhatsApp group that appears to have been set up to discredit the murder investigation.  

“The thing is, that I’m used to being harassed. I’m used to being targeted,” he said.

“The people behind the murder as well as the people behind the corruption are in a corner and they are fighting for their lives and ready to try anything to get out of it.

“While I can say yes, I’m afraid, I’m mostly afraid that my family and myself will be left alone in the same way that my mother was left alone and then it would be us being the last people doing anything about corruption.”

However, that “ranks below” the fear of never seeing prosecutions for the corruption he and his mother were dedicated to exposing. 

“Everything that happens that brings us closer to full justice, brings my family closer to closure,” he said.

“But it’s not about my family. Let’s imagine we didn’t exist, and it was just my mum on her own. The country itself still needs closure. It cannot move forward without dealing with the murder of someone as important as a journalist.”

For closure to happen, he believes, three men need to be brought to justice.

“The prosecution of Yorgen Fenech, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi for a high-level corruption scheme,” he said. “The majority of senior people in Labour accept the ‘kitchen cabinet’ of [former prime minister] Joseph Muscat was a criminal exercise. 

“The game is not whether they can convincingly deny it, it’s whether they can sneak away without any justice.”

This year marked a significant step in the campaign for justice for the murdered journalist. A public inquiry found that the state should bear responsibility for her assassination through creating an atmosphere of impunity that led to the collapse of rule of law. 

Since then, there have been promises from government to accept a series of recommendations in the report, and some symbolic steps too, including a visit by President George Vella to the scene of the murder.

Caruana Galizia says that he would accept a similar gesture by Prime Minister Robert Abela. 

“I would accept it, but I would be disappointed if he did not come with meaningful change,” he said. 

“It has to be accompanied by a message that the harassment of journalists is not acceptable, the demonisation of myself and of my mother is not acceptable.

“It has to be accompanied by a demonstrable will to fight the corruption of the past and the present.”