Joseph Muscat offered to put down a million euro to reward information that leads to the conviction of those who pulled the trigger on the bomb that assassinated Daphne Caruana Galizia. His home affairs Minister said he gave the police a blank cheque to commit any resources they need to investigate her assassination.
Matthew Caruana Galizia spoke clearly enough that the justice Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family expect must come with change. There is no justice without change.
And in spite of all of his and his mother’s work, the changes remain elusive covered by the official story that insufficient evidence exists to prosecute or convict anyone.
Then, Mr Government, use the money you offered to pay for the investigation and prosecution of the crimes Daphne Caruana Galizia gave her life investigating. This broken country, this mafia state where confidence in the state’s institutions is beneath dirt, cannot alone investigate and prosecute the crimes of its leaders.
We cannot trust the appointees of the suspects and the defendants to investigate and prosecute their bosses. We have seen time and again that they refuse to do so.
An international UN tribunal on the lines of Kosovo and Sierra Leone is needed here with legal power to investigate, subpoena evidence, arrest and detain suspects, try, sentence and imprison them. We need prosecutors and judges from outside to take a fresh look at the evidence without fear or favour. They should apply Maltese law. Nothing wrong with the laws we have written down. The issue is leaving them to shrivel and wither, lifeless and useless in the face of power.
We must have truth before reconciliation. We must have justice before we can rebuild our trust in our institutions.
We can no longer live in a country where our pained Chief Justice warns us we can no longer rely on our institutions to give us justice: that we must all pay the price for the impunity of the few.
This is the first place we should be spending our money on: the constitutional roof on our heads meant to protect us from what killed Daphne Caruana Galizia. This is a good place to re-invest our much vaunted surplus.
Let us have justice. With change.