Mediterranean island of Malta is stunned after its best known anti-graft journalist dies in a car bomb attack
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Malta’s best known investigative journalist,Daphne Caruana Galizia has been killed in a car bomb near her home.
The powerful explosive device destroyed her Peugeot 108, throwing debris into a nearby field.
Fifty-three-year-old Caruana Galizia was famous for leading the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta. She also ran a hugely popular blog in which she relentlessly focused on cases of alleged high-level corruption targeting politicians from across party lines.
Tragic and shocking news from Malta with Daphne Caruana Galizia killed. ICIJ condemns violence against journalists. https://t.co/uhJP7WfWsl pic.twitter.com/bujHIT2QSH
— ICIJ (@ICIJorg) October 16, 2017
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who faced accusations of wrong-doing by Caruana Galizia earlier this year has denounced her killing, calling it a “barbaric attack on press freedom.
He has also said the FBI is helping to investigate her murder.
Muscat sued Caruana Galizia after she accused his wife of being the owner of a company in Panama, and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts in Azerbaijan.
Both Muscat and his wife denied the accusations.
Vigil for murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia gets under way in #Malta pic.twitter.com/ooq0UecDP2
— Jacob Borg (@BorgJake) October 16, 2017