Repubblika warns against repeating failure to protect Daphne Caruana Galizia as Robert Aquilina seeks police protection

The president of anti-corruption NGO Repubblika has written to the Prime Minister and the Commissioner of Police, requesting action to ensure his safety and that of his family in the wake of threats.

The threats are related to Aquilina's efforts to uncover corruption and pre-date the recent publication of a book he authored, titled “Pilatus: A Laundromat Bank in Europe.” 

“All these matters are of significant public interest and related activism and discussion are crucial to the democratic process,” reads the letter, dated April 25 and signed by lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia.

The letter highlights the State’s obligations to implement the protection of activism and freedom of expression, and asks Prime Minister Robert Abela and Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa to “secure a safe and enabling environment for effective and genuine exercise of freedom of expression, including by providing Dr. Aquilina and his family with effective protection.”

Aquilina told the MaltaToday this morning that discussions with the Police had taken place and it had been made clear to him that unless Aquilina was facing an imminent and physical threat to his life, alone, police protection would not be provided. A number of foreign Ambassadors have expressed concern for his safety and have advised their respective governments, he added.

Aquilina, who describes himself in the letter as an activist focusing on issues relating to the rule of law, corruption, abuse of power and impunity, has been facing documented threats for some time. In November 2021, an ex-convict named Joseph Mary Borg had stalked Aquilina and his family, before sending him threatening letters, involving Aquilina’s family. Although he denied the charges, Borg is understood to have admitted to doing this during his interrogation. A number of other individuals have been convicted and handed suspended sentences for threatening Aquilina online.

“Police always tell me that they’re not threats,” Aquilina said. In November 2022, Valletta shop owner Joseph Camenzuli had replied to one of Aquilina’s Facebook posts, warning him not to go to Valletta alone. He was later convicted and fined €3000, with the conviction also later being confirmed on appeal. In his sworn testimony Camenzuli had claimed to have heard a group of people plotting against Aquilina, but during his interrogation he had refused to name the people involved and had exercised his right to silence instead.

In an interview on NET TV in December that year, Aquilina had said that two months prior, a Police Superintendent had tried to blackmail Aquilina into taking Commissioner Gafa’s face off a protest banner, warning that if he failed to do so the police “would start to treat him differently.” 

The Superintendent in question, identified in media reports as Victor Aquilina, is understood to have been questioned about this incident, but had exercised his right to silence. He resigned from the force soon after Aquilina went public with the threat, and was later employed at a Government agency.

In addition to this, Robert Aquilina says, he is denigrated “on a weekly basis” on radio and TV programs presented by Manuel Cuschieri. Cuschieri had also publicly attempted to put pressure on the Curia to stop using Aquilina’s notarial services. 

In a separate statement issued this morning, Repubblika warned that the circumstances leading to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia were being repeated, pointing to the findings of the public inquiry into Caruana Galizia's murder, which had highlighted the State's failure to provide effective protection to the murdered journalist "in the context of demonisation and the impunity for criminality that she had uncovered."