'There Were My Mother's Body Parts All Around Me'

Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia dies in car bomb attack in Malta
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 17, 2017 5:03 AM CDT
Car Bomb Kills 'One-Woman WikiLeaks'
Undated photo of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.   (The Malta Independent via AP)

"Tragic is someone being run over by a bus. When there is blood and fire all around you, that's war." So writes the son of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a 53-year-old journalist who Politico dubbed a "one-woman WikiLeaks," following her death by car bomb near her home in Malta on Monday, reports the BBC. The Guardian cites local media reports that say one of her three sons heard the blast and came running; son Matthew Caruana Galizia does write of coming upon a scene of horror: "running around the inferno in the field, trying to figure out a way to open the door, the horn of the car still blaring ... I looked down and there were my mother's body parts all around me."

Caruana Galizia targeted political corruption via her blog, which the Guardian reports "often attracted more readers than the combined circulation of the country’s newspapers." She was known for poring over the Malta-related content contained in the leaked Panama Papers and had exposed an alleged scheme involving Malta PM Joseph Muscat, passports, and payments from Azerbaijan's government. She published what would be her final blog post roughly 30 minutes before the blast in Mosta. Caruana Galizia had reportedly gone to police 15 days ago over death threats she had been receiving. Muscat called her murder a "barbaric act" and appealed for external help with the investigation; the FBI has agents en route to the country. (More journalists killed stories.)

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