Prime Minister Joseph Muscat asked then-Police Commissioner John Rizzo whether journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was safe immediately after winning the 2013 general election, a public inquiry has heard.

In a far-reaching testimony which covered his removal and pursuit of a John Dalli prosecution, Rizzo recalled that in the counting hall immediately after the result, Muscat shook his hand and asked:

“Is Bidnija alright, John?” Muscat had asked.

“I hadn’t understood immediately. I had paused and then I understood that he had referred to Daphne Caruana Galizia and I told him ‘rest assured that there are guards,” Rizzo told the court.

Despite Muscat’s first act as new soon-to-be elected Prime Minister (he was yet to take an oath) being to inquire about Caruana Galizia’s safety, regular police protection of the journalist soon stopped.

While Rizzo and his predecessors kept regular police protection of Caruana Galizia, regardless of whether she wanted it or not, the five successors since his 2013 removal didn’t do the same.

Protection under Rizzo varied from fixed-point officers to a more direct presence outside her home.

The decision to impose protection on Caruana Galizia happened through tense political moments like a general election, anonymous tips, and interceptions from Malta’s Secret Service.

Previous testimonies from Caruana Galizia’s family members revealed that the journalist disdained police protection, feeling it proved detrimental to her sources. However, Rizzo regularly ignored her, valuing her personal safety above her request for privacy.

Caruana Galizia was assassinated by a car bomb on 16th October 2017. Over two years later, both middleman Melvin Theuma and Yorgen Fenech, as well as suspected assassins George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, were arrested in connection with the murder.

The mystery surrounding her death still remains, with the Office of the Prime Minister still heavily linked to the murder, namely through former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri.