Updated | Prime Minister to meet Occupy Justice this Wednesday

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will be meeting a delegation from the group Occupy Justice on Wednesday 8 November, according to a press release issued by the group this afternoon.

“#occupyjustice confirms that today November 2 at 2.56pm it has finally, after a week, been given a formal appointment to meet the Prime Minister,” read the statement.
“Despite earlier attempts at negative spinning, we reiterate that the intention of this morning's visit to the Prime Minister's office was to remind him that we were still waiting for his official invitation.”

This morning, Occupy Justice said that despite a week passing since the start of its fight for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia, they had not yet been granted a meeting with Muscat. Holding a huge sign saying ‘We are still waiting’, a group of activists waited for 45 minutes on the steps of the Prime Minister’s office in Valletta in order to remind him, yet again, that he had still not given them a date and time to meet him and discuss their demands.

As the activists were wrapping up the event, a communications officer from the OPM came out and asked two of the activists to wait for the Prime Minister for a private meeting. Occupy Justice insisted that they wanted an official meeting, with a wider representation of the group present as well as the media. "What the group are requesting is of interest to civil society as a whole who have lost faith in the institutions. The office's invitation has not been forthcoming," the group said.

The official told MaltaToday that Muscat had accepted to meet the activists. But they retorted they could not wait 30 minutes and said the meeting would need to be held another day.

Reacting to the ad hoc invitation, a spokeswoman said: “#Occupyjustice request to meet the Prime Minister was first sent last Thursday. We set up camp in front of the Office of the Prime Minister for four days. Hundreds of people from different walks of life joined our peaceful protest, but he did not even acknowledge our presence even though we were right on his doorstep. It’s now been a week and we had to take this action to remind him that we won’t give up.”

The Prime Minister later said in a statement that he was not at Castille at the time because he was on official business. The protesters were told that the PM would return in less that 30 minutes and would be able to meet with the representatives. According to the statement, the protesters denied the meeting because they were occupied with other duties and asked to meet at a later date.

In the statement sent out this afternoon, Occupy Justice, referring to this morning’s invitation, stressed that the point of this morning’s demonstration was not to set up an ad hoc informal meeting with the Prime Minister, especially since there were only two representatives of the group present at the time.

“We have always asked for, and issued several requests for, a formal meeting with the Prime Minister. It is also essential, for the sake of transparency, that the media is present throughout the meeting,” said Occupy Justice.

Earlier this week, the group waited for the Prime Minister outside Parliament. “Regrettably he chose to go to parliament early in the afternoon in order to avoid us,” said the spokeswoman. The Prime Minister later said in Parliament that he had in fact entered parliament early in order to hold scheduled meetings.

Occupy Justice, a group of activists led by women, will on Sunday hold a sit-in protest at 4pm in front of the Police Headquarters, Floriana, together with the Civil Society Network.

Civil Society Network has stated that those attending this peaceful protest are welcome to bring placards, banners, whistles, percussion and candles. Civil Society Network is also insisting on its non-partisan demands for the immediate removal of the Police Commissioner and Attorney General, and for their replacements subject to two-thirds parliamentary majority. CSN is equally insisting for proper constitutional reform.