08/12/2020 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Malta’s implementation of Assembly recommendations on ensuring justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia and strengthening the rule of law is “unsatisfactory”, the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee has said, endorsing a follow-up report by its rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD) made public as his mandate comes to an end.
In Resolution 2293, adopted eighteen months ago, the Assembly made a series of recommendations to the Maltese authorities on achieving justice for Daphne, strengthening the rule of law and ending impunity for high-level corruption.
But the committee said implementation of the recommendations on ensuring justice for Daphne remain “fundamentally unsatisfactory, with no final results”.
The response on ending impunity for high-level corruption was “entirely unsatisfactory”, while the response on strengthening the rule of law in Malta was “unsatisfactory overall, with mixed results”.
In his report, Mr Omtzigt reviewed recent developments in the investigation and trial of Daphne’s murder, as well as the public inquiry into her death and the rule of law situation in the country.
Backing his conclusions in a statement, 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.
It also called on the Maltese authorities to take the measures identified in the follow-up report to fully implement Resolution 2293 “as a matter of urgency”.