Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese investigative journalist who exposed her island nation’s links with the so-called Panama Papers, was assassinated when a bomb destroyed her car on 16 October 2017. Photo: Reuters

By Luke Harding, David Pegg, and Juliette Garside
17 October 201
(The Guardian) – In her last blogpost, published the day she died, Daphne Caruana Galizia signed off with a sentence that seems particularly chilling now.“There are crooks everywhere you look. The situation is desperate.”Caruana Galizia, 53, felt she had good reason to feel pessimistic about Malta, and her enemies had good reason to fear her. Someone, it seems, was worried enough to want her silenced.In that last post, which appeared just before a bomb blew up the car she was driving, Caruana Galizia had taken aim, and not for the first time, at Maltese politicians. But they were far from the only people in the firing line.She believed, in essence, that malign and criminal interests had captured Malta and turned it into an island mafia state; she reported on a political system rife with corruption, businesses seemingly used to launder money or pay bribes, and a criminal justice system that seemed incapable, or unwilling, to take on the controlling minds behind it all.Proof of her fears included the 15 mafia-style assassinations and car bombings that have taken place on the island in the last 10 years – and, ultimately, perhaps, her own murder too. […]Caruana Galizia’s investigation was built on documents uncovered in the Panama Papers, published in April last year. [cf. The Panama Papers: Politicians, criminals, and the rogue industry that hides their cash; How Panama became a tax haven to the world – ‘This has been going on for so long, and is so obvious and problematic, that the question is, “How come nothing was done about it before?”’; 300 economists urge leaders to reject tax havens – ‘While all countries are hit by tax dodging, poor countries are proportionately the biggest losers’]Among the many names of government officials were two Maltese politicians: Keith Schembri, chief of staff to Muscat, and Konrad Mizzi, the country’s energy minister.Both had set up similar structures, involving Panamanian companies owned by New Zealand trusts.The allegation: the trusts were used to receive kickbacks from rich Russians who bought Maltese passports. The publication led to street protests and caused disquiet in Brussels. [more]

‘The situation is desperate’: murdered Maltese journalist’s final written words