In remarks to reporters, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the murder of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a powerful car bomb in October 2017.
But he did say that it appeared to result from comments he made a day earlier on the possibility of a pardon for an alleged middleman who had offered to identify the mastermind of the killing.
The slain journalist’s three sons were more direct in their comments on Twitter, making a direct link between the arrest and their mother’s assassination.
Muscat said he instructed police to be on the lookout for unusual actions by “people of interest” in the long-unsolved murder, after announcing Tuesday that a pardon would be possible for the middleman if information he provided could stand up in court.
“If I had not given these instructions, maybe today we might be speaking of persons of interest who might have escaped,’’ Muscat told reporters.
He declined to comment further out of concern that any comments might prejudice a case.
Bulgarian journalist murdered while on corruption investigation
"Marinova, who was a board member of the Ruse-based TV station TVN – one of the most popular TV channels in northeastern Bulgaria – is the third journalist to have been murdered in the European Union in a year. Local media reported that Marinova had recently been involved in covering an investigation by a group of Bulgarian journalists into companies involved in EU-funded infrastructure projects administered by local authorities.
Last October Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta’s best-known investigative journalist, was killed when a powerful bomb blew up her car and Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was shot dead in February."
In remarks to reporters, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the murder of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a powerful car bomb in October 2017.
The slain journalist’s three sons were more direct in their comments on Twitter, making a direct link between the arrest and their mother’s assassination.
Muscat said he instructed police to be on the lookout for unusual actions by “people of interest” in the long-unsolved murder, after announcing Tuesday that a pardon would be possible for the middleman if information he provided could stand up in court.
“If I had not given these instructions, maybe today we might be speaking of persons of interest who might have escaped,’’ Muscat told reporters.
Caruana Galizia alleged on her blog eight months before her violent death that a company called 17 Black Ltd. was connected to Maltese politicians, but provided no specific evidence.
That reporting was picked up by the Daphne Project after her murder. It reported in April 2018 that Malta’s anti-money laundering watchdog had identified Fenech, the chief executive of a Maltese property developer, as the owner of 17 Black.
Malta arrests businessman in connection with journalist murder