PN calls for Parliamentary committees to meet following murder of Nicolette Ghirxi
The Opposition will request that Government convene meetings of Parliament’s Social and Family Affairs Committees as soon as possible to discuss strengthening the State’s operations to prevent murders of women in the future.
Last Sunday, Nicolette Ghirxi was murdered, allegedly by Irishman, Edward William Johnston, in Swatar. It was reported that Ghirxi had previously been in a relationship with Johnston and that in April, had filed a report to the police that she was receiving harassment emails from Johnston from abroad. Johnston was killed by police on Monday following a confrontation in St Julian’s.
In a Facebook post, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said on Wednesday that he had “met with Members of Parliament from the Nationalist Party who serve on the Social and Family Affairs Committee in Parliament to discuss what actions we need to take to strengthen the State’s operations, with the aim of working to prevent further killings of women.”
“We agreed that a lot of work needs to be done by both sides of Parliament to ensure that these necessary changes are made as quickly as possible so that the system no longer fails one person after another.”
“Later today, we will be writing to the Government to request that the Social and Family Affairs Committee meet as soon as possible so that we can hear from stakeholders and, jointly, take action together with them to ensure that the Authorities can strengthen their operations to prevent such tragedies. It is not enough to simply change the laws; we must ensure that implementation, enforcement, and operations by the Authorities are improved to avoid such situations”, Grech said.