MALTESE AUTHORITIES HAVE arrested eight people in connection with the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced the arrests in a statement this morning.

Galizia (53) was killed on Monday 16 October in a car bomb attack.

She had been called a “one-woman Wikileaks” and had used her widely-read blog to make a series of detailed allegations of corruption in Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s inner circle, some based on the Panama Papers data leak.

Muscat said police and the military were involved in an operation following a weeks-long investigation into the high-profile murder.

“During this operation, 8 persons were arrested,” the statement said, adding that they faced “reasonable suspicion in connection with involvement in the murder” of Galizia.

All the suspects were Maltese nationals, Muscat’s statement added.

After her death, Galizia’s family accused Muscat of creating a culture of impunity that turned Malta into a “mafia island”.

Galizia was buried on 3 November, and her family asked Muscat, Malta’s president and international media to stay away from the funeral.

Eight of the world’s largest news organisations have urged the European Commission to probe the murder, saying it could not be allowed to achieve the “clear objective of silencing her investigation into corruption at the highest levels in Malta”.

Signatories include James Harding, the director of news and current affairs at the BBC, Jerome Fenoglio, director of Le Monde, Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of the Guardian and Dean Baquet, New York Times executive editor.

– © AFP 2017

Read: ‘We don’t want a reward, we want you to resign’: Murdered journalist’s sons tell Malta PM to quit

More: Malta’s Prime Minister calls murdered journalist his ‘biggest adversary’ but promises justice