'The situation is desperate': Thousands march in Malta protest over journalist's murder
T-shirts and banners are emblazoned with her final blog: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate."
Monday 23 October 2017 10:46, UK
Thousands of people have taken part in a mass demonstration demanding justice for an investigative journalist and blogger who was killed by a car bomb.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta, died when a bomb exploded in her car as she drove away from her home in Mosta last Monday.
Protesters marched through the streets of the Maltese capital Valletta wearing t-shirts and holding aloft banners emblazoned with the words of the 53-year-old's final blog post: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate."
They also placed flowers at the foot of a memorial to the reporter opposite the city's law courts.
Some angry demonstrators hurled tomatoes, cakes and coins at a banner calling on the country's police commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, to resign.
Police have confirmed that Ms Caruana Galizia reported receiving death threats two weeks before she died.
Her work took aim at corruption and cronyism, and included exposes on the offshore holdings of political figures as revealed in the leaked Panama Papers.
She was sued by a number of leading Maltese politicians.
Politico listed her as one of 2017's 28 most influential Europeans, describing her as a "one woman Wikileaks, crusading against untransparency and corruption".
The Maltese government described the journalist's death as "a case of extraordinary importance" and has and protection for anyone who comes forward with information leading to the the arrest and prosecution of her killer or killers.
The reporter's three sons have demanded Prime Minister Joseph Muscat "show political responsibility and resign".
"The people who for as long as we can remember sought to silence our mother cannot now be the ones to deliver justice," they wrote on Facebook.
Mr Muscat and opposition leader Adrian Delia chose not to attend Sunday's rally.
The Prime Minister said he would not be going because he knew the reporter's family did not want him to be there.
"I know where I should be and where I should not be. I am not a hypocrite and I recognise the signs," he said, adding that he supported the rally's goals of calling for justice and national unity.
Mr Delia also skipped the rally, saying he did want to "stir controversy".
"Today is not about me, but about the rule of law and democracy," he said.