People in Malta marked the fifth anniversary on Sunday of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia's untimely death by celebrating her work.

The anti-corruption journalist was killed in a car bombing on October 16, 2017.

Carrying pictures of Caruana Galizia the demonstrators chanted — "Daphne was right" and "We want full justice."

They were accompanied by her husband and their three sons.

Malta-born Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, laid flowers at the site of the explosion five years ago.

Maria Falcone, sister of Italian anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was killed by a car bomb in 1992, was also present.

Culture of impunity in Malta

Caruana Galizia, 53, was an investigative journalist who had targeted people in then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's inner circle whom she accused of having offshore firms disclosed in the Panama Papers.

She also targeted the opposition in the financial haven island in the Mediterranean.

Her niece Megan Mallia read out a message on behalf of her family saying the assassination of her aunt "robs people of their right to understand the reality in which they live.''

The men who killed her knew this, she continued. "They feared neither the country's authorities, nor their own conscience. They feared the thousands of people who chose to light a candle to drive away the darkness."

EP President Metsola said: "We are responsible to work for the values she worked so hard for. This is also the responsibility of the Maltese State."

An 2021 independent public inquiry into the killing declared that the culture of impunity created by the state bore responsibility the murder.

Brothers sentenced to 40 years for murder

The anniversary of Caruana Galizia's death comes only two days after a Malta court sentenced two brothers to 40 years in prison each over her murder.

George and Alfred Degiorgio had initially pleaded not guilty before a judge but changed their stance just hours later.

Vincent Muscat, a third suspect, avoided trial after changing his plea to guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A prominent businessman with connections to the previous administration, Yorgen Fenech, is currently awaiting trial. He is accused of being the mastermind behind the killing.

Following his detention in 2019, the nation saw a wave of widespread protests that ended with the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and government chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Caruana Galizia made public the existence of a company reportedly used to transfer money to Panama-registered businesses owned by the former energy minister Konrad Mizzi and Schembri.

Both Muscat and Schembri deny any involvement in the the journalist's killing and have not been prosecuted.

ss/jsi (Reuters, AP)