Assange offers €20K reward for finding killers of Malta’s ‘one-woman WikiLeaks’
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will pay €20,000 to anyone providing information leading to the conviction of the killers of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who died in a car bomb.
The investigative journalist died after the car she was travelling in exploded near her home in Bidnija, northern Malta, at around 3pm on Monday. Maltese police have opened a murder inquiry.
The 53 year old ran the hugely popular ‘Running Commentary’ blog which led Malta’s Panama Papers investigation and highlighted several other corruption scandals in the Mediterranean island nation.
In a post on Twitter Assange expressed his horror at Caruana Galizia’s death.
“Outraged to hear that Maltese investigative journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia has been murdered this afternoon not far from her home with a car bomb,” he said. Assange also added information about the proposed reward.
The blog's most recent revelations took aim at Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and two of his closest aides.
“Everyone knows Ms Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this barbaric act in any way,” Muscat said at a press conference.
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In a lengthy and emotional post on Facebook, Dauphne’s son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, described in vivid detail what happened in the aftermath of the explosion. He also lashed out at several Maltese politicians, including Muscat, and attacked the “culture of impunity (which) has been allowed to flourish by the government in Malta.”
Maltese TV station TVM reported that Caruana Galizia had filed a complaint to the police two weeks before her killing to say she had received threats but gave no further information.
In 2016 the blogger was named as one of Politico’s “28 people who are shaping, shaking and stirring Europe,” The American news outlet described Caruana Galizia as a “one-woman WikiLeaks.”
