VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe described as “fundamentally unsatisfactory” Maltàs response to its recommendations on ensuring justice for the assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and the strengthening of the rule of law in the country.
Eighteen months ago, the assembly made several recommendations to Malta.
The committee said that the implementation of the recommendations on ensuring justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia remained “fundamentally unsatisfactory, with no final results”. The report slams Maltàs response on ending impunity for high-level corruption as “entirely unsatisfactory” while the response on strengthening the rule of law in Malta was “unsatisfactory overall, with mixed results”. The committee also called on the Maltese government to “refrain from any attempt to impose an arbitrary time-limit” on the work of the independent public inquiry currently under way.
On Monday, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela said that he is still expecting the public inquiry to conclude by the deadline he had set – 15 December. He insisted that the inquiry had been given enough time to fulfil its mandate.
Meanwhile, Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld has written a letter to the Maltese Prime Minister calling on him to allow the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia the time needed, and not until December 15.
In September 2019, the Maltese government had announced the launch of a public inquiry into the assassination of Caruana Galizia who was killed by a car bomb outside her home in Bidnija on 16 October 2017.
In its reaction, the Maltese government said that in the past months, it carried out unprecedented Constitutional and Institutional reforms which were positively received by the Venice Commission within the Council of Europe, and the European Commission.
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews