Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1189024
4 maltatoday | MONDAY • 2 DECEMBER 2019 NEWS KARL AZZOPARDI THOUSANDS of people descended on Valletta yesterday demanding Jo- seph Muscat's resignation as the coun- try plunges deeper into crisis. Marching to shouts 'Daphne was right', 'Justice', and 'Assassins', people called out Muscat, insisting that he was not their prime minister. This was the seventh protest in two weeks after Yorgen Fenech was ar- rested and later charged with Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder. Another protest will be held tonight outside Parliament. The protest was organised by civil so- ciety groups Repubblika, Occupy Jus- tice and Manuel Delia. It started in front of Parliament at 4pm and moved to the square in front of the law courts, where protesters were addressed by activists. Fenech's arrest snowballed into a full political crisis after he implicated the Prime Minister's former chief of staff Keith Schembri in the murder during interrogation. Schembri eventually resigned after intense internal and external pressure but the guns have now turned on Mus- cat. Fenech's close association with Schembri through secretive compa- nies in Panama and Dubai has turned toxic for Muscat. The Prime Minister had defended his chief of staff for three whole years since the Panama Papers uncovered how Schembri and Konrad Mizzi opened companies in Panama and had as a target client, 17 Black, a Dubai company that eventually turned out to belong to Fenech. Schembri was arrested and interro- gated at length over his alleged link to the Caruana Galizia murder but was later released by the police. Protests decrying corruption and calling for the Prime Minister's resig- nation, have been growing in numbers and intensity. Yesterday's protest was the largest so far as pressure mounts on Muscat to step down. The protest came hours after an emergency meeting of the La- bour Party parliamentary group gave Muscat free-reign to decide on his exit. Continued on Page 6 As PM holds on to power, thousands demand his resignation