The photos placed at the memorial dedicated to journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed in a car bomb on 16 October, were removed overnight in the latest attempt to spark controversy over the memorial.

Labour Party members and government officials have been demanding its removal and have taken to social media to remind people she was hated. There was a concerted effort on 16 Feb – four months since her assassination – to silence calls for justice. Banners and billboards put up by citizens were removed in the dead of night.

Hours before a candlelight vigil was due to be held at her memorial on the same day, three photos were placed next to Caruana Galizia’s picture. They showed former Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, a controversial figure who died of natural causes in his old age, as well as Raymond Caruana, gunned down in 1986, and Karin Grech, murdered in 1977.

The note left instead of the photos this morning.

This morning, all photos were removed and boards with the message ‘who killed Daphne?’ were swept aside. A telling note was left in their place: “Karen Grech you are truely (sic) in our hearts as you are a real hero! You done (sic) no harm to no one (sic). You helped people to survive. Still waiting for justice”.

Grech, who was a child when she was assassinated, is regarded as the victim that the Labour Party claims as its own. A point that seems to have been missed in the message left behind is that the Labour Party has been in power for five years and it has all the tools at its disposal to deliver justice for all victims of political assassinations.