Candles on Sliema beach spell out ‘justice’, 10 months from Caruana Galizia assassination

Activists from Occupy Justice place candles on Sliema beach to form words ‘justice’ for murdered journalist

Candles placed on the Sliema beach in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Candles placed on the Sliema beach in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia

Glowing candles forming the word ‘Justice’ illuminated the Fond Għadir beachfront in Sliema at the break of dawn to mark ten months since the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The symbolic action was carried out by Occupy Justice, a group of activists formed in the aftermath of the Caruana Galizia assassination.

“We are here, lighting candles as the sun is rising as a symbol of hope. We want to tell the Prime Minister that no inconclusive inquiry will stop our quest for justice. We shall see to it that there will be a new dawn for Malta, a dawn where justice will prevail,” they said. 

“We are after justice. Because ten months on we still do not know who commissioned the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the web of corruption based at the Office of the Prime Minister is getting more and more entangled.”

Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb on 16 October, 2017. Three men have been charged with carrying out the murder, although the alleged mastermind has yet to be brought to justice.

Occupy Justice accused Joseph Muscat of protecting his tourism minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri from being investigated over their offshore structures in Panama. The two men are appealing a court decision to have Judge Antonio Mizzi – the husband of a Labour MEP – recused on an appeal they filed against a magisterial inquiry into the Panama Papers.

“We have enough documented evidence to know that the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and his top Minister Konrad Mizzi have set up a money laundering structure in order to receive illicit kickbacks,” the NGO said of the revelations in the Panama Papers.

The activists also borrowed the famous lines from Winston Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons on 4 June 1940 during the Battle of France.

“No matter what kind of pressure you will put on us, ‘we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender’.”

In their reference to Churchill, Occupy Justice said “a great man before us said these words, and he succeeded. Mark our words, so shall we.”