Freedom of expression organisations back Aquilina’s request for protection

International freedom of expression and journalists’ organisations have issued a statement in support of Reppublika President Robert Aquilina, calling on the Maltese authorities to urgently consider his request for police protection.

Earlier today, Aquilina, through his lawyer Therese Commodini Cachia, sent a letter to Prime Minister Robert Abela and Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa urging them to provide adequate protection for Aquilina and his family.

In their statement, PEN International and Scottish PEN describe how the organisations wrote to Malta’s police commissioner in July 2022, after Robert Aquilina had been stripped of most of his police protection.

Subsequent correspondence and a meeting between Aquilina, PEN Malta and senior police officials on 20 April 2023 revealed that Aquilina’s safety was no longer considered to be at significant risk, despite ongoing threats.

#Malta: we urge the authorities to grant police protection to @repubblikaMT President @RobertAquilina3, and to do everything in their power to ensure the protection of writers, journalists, and activists. Our joint statement: https://t.co/rZmxhEed0Y @IFEX @IndexCensorship pic.twitter.com/SaUdsJqmMa

— PEN International (@pen_int) April 26, 2023

These threats included an individual who confessed to the police that he had followed Aquilina, his wife, and their children to churches to obtain information about the family and then used it to threaten Aquilina.

Another person stated under oath that he had overheard a group of people outside the parliament talking in a way that indicated they would harm Aquilina. A police officer threatened Aquilina’s safety and subsequently resigned from the police force. Meanwhile, vilification and online harassment of Aquilina on media platforms continue unabated, where he is routinely branded a “traitor”.

The organisations state that they “regard Robert Aquilina’s case as urgent and support his request for police protection. We ask for assurance that he and his family will be provided with full protection to safeguard them from all possible harm”.

The letter was signed by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), IFEX, Index on Censorship, Irish PEN, PEN International, PEN Malta, Scottish PEN and Wales PEN Cymru.

Other messages of support came from the Nationalist Party, which also issued a statement saying “that the state and the police have a duty to protect those who want the truth to be revealed, even if it displeases the Government of the day”.

The Nationalist Party statement added that it agrees with “the people’s concern that Robert Abela’s government seems not to have learned from the conclusions of the Public Inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, which had found that the State had failed to recognise the dangers she faced”.

“In light of all this, the Nationalist Party reiterates that the State has an obligation to ensure the protection of Notary Robert Aquilina and his family”.