Civil Society’s comments tonight on Mintoff’s picture at the Daphne Caruana Galizia memorial in Valletta:

We understand why someone would want to put pictures of Raymond Caruana and Karin Grech on a popular memorial and protest site demanding justice and an end to impunity.

Mintoff died in his sleep of natural causes. No one has ever claimed he died of foul play. We are not idiots. We know it was put there by people whose preferred solution would be to remove the whole thing.

We are hurt by what they did but we’re not falling for it. We’re leaving that picture right where it is. It will remind everyone that many people still support political violence, suppression of rights and corruption: Mintoff is known for all three. The burning of the Times building anticipated Daphne’s killing. The closing of church schools brought Daphne into activism. The killing of Nardu Debono anticipated the corruption of the political police we experience today.

So we’re leaving Mintoff here. It changes nothing.

We demand Justice for Daphne. And we demand Justice for Malta. May the long suffering families of Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana have a taste of what they have been so long denied.