The Daphne Caruana Galizia murder inquiry report should serve as the starting point for a national recovery from the trauma left by the journalist’s murder, President George Vella said on Friday.

The 437-page report, published on Thursday, concluded that a culture of impunity was created from the highest echelons of power within Castille, leading to Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb in Bidnija in October 2017.

In a statement on Facebook, President Vella said he had taken note of the conclusions and recommendations of the inquiry board and while he still had to consider more and better what was decided and recommended, his initial reaction was that the recommendations should be respected, and, where possible, implemented.

Vella said that now that the process has been concluded, he was reiterating the importance, as he had done on several occasions during his Presidency, that the judicial structures should be allowed to work without interference and outside pressure, for the sake of justice.

The President said he believed that the report should serve as a starting point for the beginning of a national recovery from the trauma left by the murder.

This, he said, can also be reached in the spirit of the Conference for National Unity he had called in February, as well as in the work of the Foundation for National Unity to be launched in the coming weeks.

The President said he had listened to all that was said in the press conferences given by the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition and he joined both in expressing regret at all that had led to Daphne’s murder.