The Inquiry’s terms of reference seek the following deliverables:
- “to determine whether any wrongful action or omission by or within, any State entity facilitated the assassination or failed to prevent it. In particular whether (a) any State entity knew or ought to have known of, or caused, a real and immediate risk to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s life including from the criminal acts of a third party and (b) failed to take measures within the scope of its powers which, judged reasonably, it might have been expected to take in order to avoid that risk;
- “to establish whether the State had and has in place effective criminal law provisions and other practical means to avoid the development of a de facto State of impunity through the frequent occurrence of unresolved criminal acts and to deter the commission of serious criminal offences, backed up by law enforcement machinery for the prevention, suppression, investigation and punishment of serious breaches of the law;
- “to determine whether the State has fulfilled and is fulfilling its positive obligation to take preventive operational measures to protect individuals whose lives are at risk from criminal acts in particular in the case of journalists.”
Our view is that the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia is the result of a series of concentric circles set up to allow for the murder to occur, for its perpetrators to organise and execute it, and allow them to enjoy impunity after the fact.