Life imitates art in Malta as three billboards call for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia

Life imitates art: four months to the day of the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the women’s activist group #OccupyJustice put up three billboards with pointed messages directed at the country’s Prime Minister.

In the Oscar-nominated movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, an anguished mother seeks justice for her murdered daughter. After months pass without the culprit being caught, the mother makes a bold move, and puts up three billboards on a main motorway, with pointed messages directed at the town’s revered Chief of Police.

In Malta, the movement set up after the assassination by car bomb of Daphne Caruana Galizia, OccupyJustice said they were inspired by the film “because with the Maltese government’s disregard for the rule of law, living in Malta at the moment is pretty much like living in a mafia movie”.

The three billboards, all black on red – in the same style as the Hollywood movie, carry the messages: “A JOURNALIST KILLED. NO JUSTICE.” – “A COUNTRY ROBBED. NO JUSTICE.” –  “NO RESIGNATIONS. NO JUSTICE.”

“The country is rife with corruption and there is not even a semblance of justice being carried out. Yet, the government refuses to address this because it is feasting on a culture of impunity,” OccupyJustice said.

Four months have passed since the assassination of Caruana Galizia’s assassination, with three men arrested for carrying out the execution. OccupyJustice said that the persons who commissioned the murder are still at large.

The activists once again asked what the Prime Minister’s vested interest was in keeping tourism minister Konrad Mizzi and his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri – both implicated in the Panama Papers are also the subject of magisterial inquiries on allegations of corruption – by his side. “Why hasn’t he fired them? What is he waiting for?”

OccupyJustice have also demanded the resignation of the Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar and the Attorney General, Dr Peter Grech. “Neither of them has, as would befit their role, taken matters in their own hands, and they are simply dancing to the government’s tune. All this means that the country’s key institutions are held hostage by the government.”