Joseph Muscat told a press conference that eight people – all Maltese nationals, most with criminal records – had been detained in early-morning raids in three different parts of the island. He tweeted later that two more suspects were also in custody.

Muscat said there was a “reasonable suspicion” the suspects were involved in the killing of Caruana Galizia, whose popular blog attacked high-level political corruption, shady business dealings and organised crime on the island.

The joint police and military operation was the first breakthrough for the Maltese investigation, which has been helped by experts from the FBI, Europol and the Finnish and Dutch security services. Police now have 48 hours to interrogate the suspects and either charge or release them.

Muscat, who was a frequent target of Caruana Galizia’s blog reports along with others in his inner circle, said he could give no further details of the arrests, the suspects or the evidence against them, but offered his “personal commitment” that those responsible for the killing would be found.

Caruana Galizia’s son Matthew, who is also a reporter, told the Guardian his family were “in the dark” about the arrests and had been given no further information beyond a phone call from a magistrate’s office after the arrests were made public.

At a separate event, the island’s police commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, refused to take any questions about the arrests, which have been called one of the biggest police operations in Maltese history.

They took place in Marsa, where other car bombings have occurred, as well as Zebbug, a village in central Malta, and in the northern town of St Paul’s Bay. A section of Lighters Wharf in the port area of Marsa was still sealed off later on Monday as military personnel and police used sniffer dogs to search buildings.

The murder on 16 October sent shockwaves through the island and alarmed the EU, which was already concerned about the rule of law on Malta. The bloc’s smallest member state has often been branded a haven for dubious foreign money.

Last week, MEPs visiting Malta on a fact-finding mission said they had arrived “seriously concerned” about the rule of law and were leaving “even more worried”. They said an apparent reluctance to investigate and prosecute major cases had created a “perception of impunity”.

The journalist’s family are taking legal action against the island’s police, saying the investigation into the killing cannot be impartial and independent since Caruana Galizia wrote critical articles about both the senior officer now running it, Silvio Valletta, and his wife, a top government minister.

The family have alleged that her murder was a “targeted killing” of a journalist whose work focused on uncovering “corruption, criminality, conflicts of interest and ethical failures in decision-making” by politicians and their associates.

The family have raised other concerns about the investigation, which they say appears to be focusing only on forensic evidence rather than examining financial transactions that could uncover vital evidence. They also suggest leaks from within the police could intimidate potential informants.

The most significant investigations by the murdered journalist stemmed from the Panama Papers, a leak of documents from the archives of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. Malta’s government is offering a €1m reward for information relating to the killing.

A top Italian prosecutor, Carmelo Zuccaro, has said he believes the murder could be linked to an investigation he is leading into a fuel-smuggling operation spanning Libya, Malta and Italy and involving organised crime groups in Sicily. Caruana Galizia wrote about some of those linked to the inquiry.

Antonio Di Pietro, an Italian politician and judge who was a prosecutor in Italy’s anti-corruption Mani Pulite corruption trials in the 1990s, said on Monday that Caruana Galizia’s murder had all the hallmarks of a mafia-style killing.

“It was professional and a classic mafia-style homicide,” Di Pietro told the Times of Malta. “The mafia’s style is intimidation. The target was not only poor Caruana Galizia … but all those around her because it was a clear warning: be careful or you’ll suffer the same fate.”

Responding to a public letter from eight of the world’s largest media organisations including the New York Times, BBC and the Guardian, the first vice-president of the EU commission, Frans Timmermans, last month issued a strong warning to Malta.

“The eyes of Europe are on the Maltese authorities,” Timmermans said. “We want those directly and indirectly responsible for this horrible murder to be brought to justice.”

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Source: Guardian UK

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The domestic flight with 118 people on board was hijacked after taking off from Sabha, bound for the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Instead, the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 was diverted to Malta International Airport.

It appears the two hijackers are supporters of Libya’s late deposed leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Pictures of them kneeling on the tarmac with their hands up appear to show the moment they were arrested by the Maltese authorities.

All the passengers – including one infant – and a number of the crew had already been released.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat initially said that the men had been armed with pistols and a grenade – but later tweeted that the weapons appeared to be replicas.

Mr Muscat said neither of the men, believed to be of Libyan nationality, had made any demands.

He told a press conference: “The two hijackers have been detained in custody and interrogations are ongoing. The rest of the crew and passengers are also being questioned to ascertain events.

“Once this interrogation process is completed over the next few hours arrangements will be made to send the passengers and the crew members back to Libya with another Afriqiyah aircraft.”

Shortly before the incident drew to an end, one man emerged from the plane briefly and stood on the plane steps waving a green, Gaddafi-era flag – adding support to earlier suggestions they were loyalists to the former leader, killed in 2011.

Taher Siala, the foreign minister of Libya’s internationally backed Government of National Accord, said the hijackers wanted to set up a pro-Gaddafi political party.

One of the hijackers told a Libyan television station: “We took this measure to declare and promote our new party.”

Initial information had suggested the hijackers were trying to claim political asylum in Malta, the mayor of Sabha, Colonel Hamed al-Khayali, told the BBC.

The incident began after the plane took off from Sabha at 11:10 local time (08:10 GMT), landing in Malta two hours and 20 minutes later.

Mr Muscat said the passenger list included 82 men, 28 women and one baby.

Col Khayali said security at Tmenhant was poor, with a distance of 5km (3.1 miles) travel between the airport building and planes.

“That is an open space and it is possible that along that route something was smuggled on board,” he said.

Malta International Airport was closed and all flights were diverted while the incident was on-going.

Libya has been in a state of chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi, who had ruled the country since 1969.

His removal left warring militias battling for control of different parts of the country, with so-called Islamic State (IS) taking control of areas.

Forces loyal to a national unity government, backed by the UN, recently took control of the coastal city of Sirte, which had been a bastion for IS since June 2015.

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Source: BBC

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