L-Atti tal-Inkjesta datata 19 ta' Novembru 2019, rigward skont it-Termini ta’ Referenza ta’ l- Inkjesta Pubblika dwar l- Assassinju ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Seduta miżmuma llum it-Tlieta 10 ta’ Diċembru, 2019 fis-2:00 p.m. fit- Tieni Sular, Awla 20, il-Qorti.

Judge Michael Mallia :

Helene Asciak mart Mark bint Michael Vella u Rose Mamo imwielda u residenti Ta’ Sliema bil-lingwa Ingliza u bil-gurament tghid:

The Witness :

There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. To many these are Daphne Caruana Galizia’s last words. To me, my sister’s last words were those she said to me as I stepped out of her car, right outside my house when she dropped me off in the evening of October 14, 2017. The very same car in which she was killed less then 48 hours later. From then on the battle for justice for Daphne began.

Daphne exposed abuse and corruption in the highest levels of the government and she was harasses and killed for doing so. For years Daphne was harassed, threatened, dehumanized; she always rose above it. She soldiered on as my mother would say.

In 2010 an anonymous website called ‘Taste Your Own Medicine’ was set up with that sole purpose. It was promoted on facebook by the now MEP Alex Saliba who at the time was the secretary general of the Forum Zghazagh Laburisti. He wrote that Daphne has to be stopped. Eventually this anonymous website was taken down and a similar website run by Glenn Bedingfield was created.

Nine (9) months before Daphne was assassinated she wrote – what Glenn Bedingfield does, on instruction from and with the cooperation of the Prim Minister is a threat to democracy falsely presented as an expression of it. The sole purpose of what he writes is to threaten critics of the Prime Minister and the government, whether these critics are journalists, prominent people in other fields, or those connected to them; this has a chilling effect on those who criticise, making them stop, fear and think twice

(I’ m sorry, I am emotional because when I read my sister’s words and I read her blog I actually visualise her and actually hear her in voice.)

Judge A. Lofaro :

We understand.

The Witness :

Glenn Bedingfield, now an PM was Joseph Muscat’s communications aide, installed in the office of the Prime Minister. One month later in February 2017 Daphne wrote : I have always been subjected to harassment by the Labour Party and its media machine, but since the Labour Party got into government starting literally from the middle of March 2013, I have been subjected to serious harassment in every imaginable way possible by the government authorities, politicians of the government, cabinet ministers, aids to the Prime Minister and the ongoing assaults of the Labour media machine.

It is clearly and obviously systematic, and in some cases dovetailed for maximum distress. For example, while I was dealing with the immediate fall out the day Economy Minister and his policy aide had my bank account frozen I began receiving telephone calls, in the thick of it, form the police who want to interrogate me for harassing John Dalli. Yes, it is quite unbelievable.

She carried on to say : when journalists hold politicians to public scrutiny, that is democracy, but when politicians expose journalists to public scrutiny and target them, that is a grave violation of democratic norms. It is the job of journalists to scrutinise politicians. It is not the job of politicians to scrutinise journalists. On the contrary, it is a violation associated with totalitarian regimes.

The government’s head of communications at the time was Kurt Farrugia, who accompanied Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi to Barco to negotiate the Azerbaijan a fuel deal alone and unaccompanied by senior civil servant or career diplomats .

In July 2019 Kurt Farrugia was appointed as a CEO of Malta Enterprise and his contract according to The Time includes unique terms.

Anglu Farrugia, now the Speaker of the House was kicked out by the Labour Party’s deputy leader position only a few weeks before the general election of 2013. In Daphne’s words : Anglu Farrugia reacted by giving a big interview to The Sunday Times, alluding to pre-electoral shady dealings with the business operators on the 4th Floor or they use to say – ir-raba’ Sular, I am sure the people remember, of the Labour Party Headquarters. Then he went silent, causing people to wonder whether he had struck a deal with Muscat.. immediately Muscat was elected Prim Minister, he appointed Farrugia as the Speaker of the House.

Way back in February 2016, Daphne reported the following : The Prime Minister’s Personal Assistant and Chief of Staff businessman Keith Schembri of KASCO Limited and his Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi has set up exactly the same structure from concealing assets from the authorities in the European Union. They each have a trust in New Zealand which holds a company in EU blacklisted Panama. Both men set up their structures exactly concurrently using the services of Brian Tonna at Nexia BT. Tonna has been Schembri’s accountant for 2 decades, and just before the 2013 election he set up another offshore company for him in the British Virgin Islands.

After Daphne’s assassination The Times of Malta reported that Nexia BT managing partner Brain Tonna was given a contract worth five thousand a month as a person of trust answerable to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici. Tonna was employed while facing criminal inquiry for passing alleged kickbacks on the passport sales with Schembri.

Malta’s permanent representative the Council of Europe speaking in the name of the Maltese state refer to running commentary which was Daphne’s blog as a hate blog. This was in Malta’s official reply to February 2017 while she was still alive. Report filed on the Council of Europe’s platform for the protection of journalism and media freedom about the Economic Minister Chris Cardona and his policy aide the lawyer Joe Gerada filing 4 libel suites and freezing her bank account.

In February 2017, just 8 months before Daphne was assassinated she uploaded a post titled – This is Malta’s Minister of Justice; and beneath it there was a screenshot of Owen Bonnic’s tweet, he had tweeted the day before. It read – today at Simon Busuttil made it emphatically clear that hate blogger DCG and PN Malta are one in the same thing. What a sad day for genuine people.

The Justice Minister Owen Bonnici is responsible for the daily destruction of the protest side opposite the law courts calling for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia and her work. The people who place tributes at the protest memorial often insulted sworn at, and some of us have been physically assaulted including myself. I have been shouted at and told that no amount of candles I light can bring her back. They say it to ridicule me and they cannot hide the blind hatred they have for Daphne even though they never knew her and never even read a word she wrote.

When my sister’s life was taken from her, our right to know was taken too. Daphne could never be bought; and Daphne could never be silenced, and so they killed her. I can never bring my sister back, I know that, but what we can do is call for truth and justice. Justice must be served.

Thank you.

Din hija s-sustanza tax-xhieda ta’ Helene Asciak kif dettata minnha stess fil- prezenza ta’ l-istess xhud.

Niddikjara li traskrivejt bl-ahjar hila tieghi x-xhieda ta’ l-istess xhud.

Saviour Scicluna Traskrittur.