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Daphne’s Murder Showed Us What Malta’s Dark Elite Class Really Looks Like

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I can’t help but feel that persistent efforts to downplay Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder by casting her as some kind of elitist comic book villain serve to obscure a crucial fact of her assassination.

All the facts on the table show that Caruana Galizia was slaughtered by a murderous class of elites.

Whether for money, personal hatred, or other motives, the killers felt they had every right to do away with her, and to hell with the repercussions on her family and the country. And they felt this way because they had so much power that they genuinely felt they could get away with it.

Let’s start off with George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, three men who have pleaded guilty to her murder. Honestly, one of the most shocking findings of the murder was the revelation of their hangout, the Marsa potato shed where they were ultimately arrested.

The location of their hangout is very telling. Not a basement or a shed in the middle of nowhere, not even a private home, but a large, partially open-air building in a busy town right next to the sea.

The 'potato shed' in Marsa where George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat were arrested in 2017

The 'potato shed' in Marsa where George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat were arrested in 2017

Top-level crimes were being carried out right under everyone’s noses and they weren’t exactly hiding it. Apparently, the potato shed even contained costumes of comic book characters with the names of previous murder victims attached to it. And they had inside information of their arrest down to the hour of the raid.

Meanwhile, although they were registered as unemployed and even received social benefits, Alfred Degiorgio got to gamble hundreds of thousands of euro in cash at casinos without anyone blinking an eye.

How was this possible? Regular people can’t even deposit a few thousands of euro without banks and authorities asking questions, but yet Degiorgio was viewed as a special breed of person.

And it gets murkier when you look at the people charged with supplying the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia, as well as the 2015 murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop.

Murder suspect Yorgen Fenech

Murder suspect Yorgen Fenech

One of the ‘Tal-Maksar’ brothers was not only an alleged murderer but, for all intents and purposes, a legitimate businessman who was in business with a certain Ryan Schembri, who just so happens to be the cousin of Keith Schembri, who for six years was widely considered to be the most powerful man in government.

They too were allowed to operate in plain sight for years, while allegedly killing people on the side, and reports by Caruana Galizia herself were completely ignored.

Meanwhile, self-declared middleman Melvin Theuma was the beneficiary of one of the most egregious and disgusting examples of unfair government favours in recent history. Right after arranging the price for Caruana Galizia’s murder, Theuma got to meet power player Keith Schembri at Castille and was promptly given a fake government job that, according to him, he didn’t even ask for.

Not only was he paid a large sum of money to end someone’s life but he got some extra taxpayer-funded freebies for good measure. More special treatment to a murderous criminal, this time directly involving the most powerful people in the land.

Former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri

Former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri

As for the alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech, who should be facing a trial by jury soon, he was nothing less than the head of one of Malta’s most powerful businesses. Not only was he born in wealth and owned what was back then the tallest skyscraper in Malta but he had personal connections to people in power that other businessmen could only dream of.

And yet this wasn’t enough for him. Evidence shows that he felt he had every right to kill a person he hated – a person he denounced as ‘ħadra’ and who he said he could throw off a building “with his own two hands” – and use his influence to get away with it. Failing that, he repeatedly tried for a pardon but to no avail.

I think the plot ran even deeper. There are simply too many suspicious threads that haven’t been explained.

Things like an OPM official turning up at Theuma’s house, Keith Schembri speaking with Fenech on the phone a day before Fenech’s arrest, Schembri allegedly sending a doctor to an arrested Fenech with instructions to pin the murder on Chris Cardona, Schembri “losing” his phone right before his arrest, and former police chief Lawrence Cutajar personally discussing the investigation with one of Theuma’s friends.

Hopefully more details will emerge during Fenech’s trial by jury.

Yet the current facts alone are enough to show that, no matter her personal views, Caruana Galizia ended up the victim of a group of elites who felt their power extended to their right to kill a human being.

There is no bringing back Caruana Galizia or permanently removing this stain from our collective past but lessons can still be learned in terms of what can happen if criminals are allowed to acquire so much power.

History should remember her murder that way.

Are you going to commemorate Daphne Caruana Galizia today?

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Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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