The police sergeant who said that murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Galizia got what she deserved in a fiery car bomb has been suspended.
Galizia, a 53-year-old who had shaken up her country’s politics by reporting on connections to the Panama Papers, was killed by an explosion Monday in what her family calls a political assassination.
Her one-time target Sergeant Ramon Mifsud, however, called it something else, saying that the death brought him joy.
“Everyone gets what they deserve, cow dung! Feeling happy :)” he posted in Maltese shortly after news of the explosion.
The comments brought outrage from Galizia’s son Matthew Caurana Galizia, a fellow journalist who blamed leaders for creating a “culture of impunity” and a “mafia state.”
The younger Galizia said that Mifsud was supposed to be investigating the murder, and that his mother was killed “only for the people who are supposed to have protected you to instead be celebrating it.”
Mifsud was previously featured in a post on Galizia’s blog in 2014, where she said he was pictured in uniform before a “lapdancing club fracas.”
He was suspended on Tuesday, with a police spokesman telling The Malta Independent that the remarks were “reprehensible and do not befit any citizen, let alone an officer whose role is to protect all Maltese citizens.”
While authorities including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat have promised justice, Galizia’s family has expressed doubt given their contentious relationship with the slain writer.
Galizia’s work earned praise for exposing links between those close to Muscat and offshore dealings to receive money from Azerbaijan, though he denies any wrongdoing.
Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, another Galizia target, had been tasked with leading the inquiry into her death, though local media reported she recused herself Tuesday after calls to do so from the family.
Gathering at a silent vigil for the journalist in Brussels on Wednesday, Member of European Parliament Roberta Metsola told the Daily News that “no one else had the courage she had.”
“We are looking at a situation now where no journalist feels safe, and the journalists never feel safe again,” he said.
