Occupy Justice call for Chris Cardona’s resignation

Occupy Justice has called for Chris Cardona’s resignation and asked the police to investigate him over his relationship with a man accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Standing outside the Valletta police stations, activists said Cardona had lied about his relationship with Alfred Degiorgio, one of three men charged with Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Activists filed a police report, asking for Cardona to be investigated.

“What we have here is not simply a relationship between a lawyer and a former client of his but an intimate and familiar relationship between a government minister and people known to the police for their involvement in contraband, drug trafficking and contract killings,” the activists said.

Cardona had played down connections to Degiorgio when journalists from the Daphne Project revealed last April that he had been seen drinking and talking with the man at a Siġġiewi bar.

In a subsequent development yesterday, Italian newspaper La Repubblica placed Cardona and Degiorgio at the same bachelor’s party four months before the Caruana Galizia murder. The newspaper also claimed that a man believed to be a fuel smuggler had placed a phone call with Cardona and Degiorgio, immediately after calling Caruana Galizia in October 2016.

Occupy Justice accused Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta of having controlled the Caruana Galizia murder case from the start by trying his best to “filter information” so that any possible political connections are kept hidden. This was sustained until the court removed him from the case, they added.

The group insisted Cardona’s position in government was untenable.