Malta’s prime minister said Sunday he would resign, amid mounting criticism of his government’s handling of an investigation into a journalist’s murder that has implicated some of his closest aides.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who has led the tiny European country for over six years, said he would step down in January, when a new leader for the ruling Labour Party will be chosen.
The announcement late Sunday came as the premier faced heavy pressure in Malta and internationally over the slow-moving investigation into the 2017 murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta’s best-known investigative journalist. The case has triggered the country’s deepest political crisis in decades.
“I promised two years ago that justice would be done in the case of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia,” Mr. Muscat said in a televised address, a transcript of which was published in Maltese media. “Today I am here to tell you that I kept my word,” he added, pointing to some high-profile arrests in late November.
“But our country comes first,” he said, promising to step down after Jan. 12, when his party selects a new leader.
Ms. Caruana Galizia’s reporting on corruption among Malta’s politicians and business people made her numerous enemies, and she was killed in 2017 by a bomb placed in her car. The brazen killing drew widespread international scrutiny and raised concerns over the rule of law in the European Union’s smallest member state. Those concerns deepened as the investigation into the murder largely stalled for two years.
Relatives of Ms. Caruana Galizia and other critics said the prime minister should resign immediately.
“Joseph Muscat must go now,” the journalist’s family said in a statement. “His continued tenure as prime minister is intolerable to anyone who cares about justice...Until he resigns, we will use all legal remedies to ensure Muscat has no further involvement in the investigation and criminal proceedings.”
Three men linked to a local criminal gang were detained shortly after the murder for carrying out the bombing, but investigators made little progress in finding out who ordered the killing. Critics argued that not enough was being done to determine who else was involved.
Then, in recent days, the arrest of a man who identified himself as a middleman in the assassination led to a breakthrough in the case.
Yorgen Fenech, one of Malta’s most prominent businessmen, was formally charged on Saturday as an accomplice to the murder of Ms. Caruana Galizia. Mr. Fenech, who was detained as he tried to flee Malta on his yacht on Nov. 20, has told police that the mastermind of the murder was the prime minister’s former chief of staff, Keith Schembri, the Times of Malta reported. Mr. Schembri resigned as chief of staff last week. He has denied any wrongdoing. Mr. Fenech has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Schembri last week was taken into police custody and let go after two days, after police concluded there was no reason to prolong his arrest. His swift release, and the emergence of a widely-shared photo of him with the middleman, intensified public anger against Mr. Muscat and his government.
The prime minister’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the photo.
Before her death, Ms. Caruana Galizia wrote that corruption was becoming endemic in the island nation. She frequently wrote about Mr. Schembri, alleging that he and then-energy minister Konrad Mizzi were the intended beneficiaries of payments by a secret offshore company that was later revealed by the Times of Malta and Reuters to be owned by Mr. Fenech.
Mr. Mizzi resigned as tourism minister last week after investigators identified him as a person of interest in the case. Both Mr. Mizzi and Mr. Schembri have denied any wrongdoing in connection to the offshore company.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com
