Updated 8.45am with Pullicino Orlando's post

An employee at the Prime Minister’s Office and the son of a contractor with close links to the Labour Party were questioned by the police in connection with ‘theft’ from Daphne Caruana Galizia's makeshift memorial in Valletta, Times of Malta has learnt.

Asked whether the employee in question had been suspended, an OPM spokesman insisted the suspect was denying “any connection with the removal of flowers and candles”.

Read: Daphne memorial 'thieves' are 'very close to the OPM', PN MP alleges

Candles, flowers and other mementos placed at the foot of the Great Siege Monument by followers of the slain journalist were removed during Wednesday night. This was at least the third time the memorial had been cleared over the past few weeks.

Opposition MP Karol Aquilina filed a formal request to Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar asking him to launch an investigation into the matter.

He noted he had bought some of the items himself barely 24 hours earlier after all the flowers and candles placed there had mysteriously disappeared during the previous night.

In a Facebook post uploaded on Friday, Dr Aquilina said the police had traced those who were behind the ‘theft’.

He did not mention any names but said the suspects were “very close” to the Office of the Prime Minister.

When contacted, the police confirmed that several individuals had been questioned in connection with the matter and that investigations were ongoing.

Sources told Times of Malta the police were looking for three suspects, two of whom had been traced by the time of writing.

“A middle-aged OPM employee and a younger man in his 20s have been questioned and released a statement,” the sources said.

They noted that the two suspects had been spotted by a police officer who was on patrol in Valletta on the night of the incident.

“Though the two managed to escape in a black van parked in Old Bakery Street, they were apprehended some hours later,” the sources added.

Legal sources said that, if found guilty, the suspects faced a jail term ranging from seven months to two years.

“This was no simple theft because the offence was committed at night,” the sources said.

“Furthermore, if it transpires that the value of the stolen items exceeded €232, it could also qualify as aggravated theft,” they added.

The news item was derided by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, former Nationalist MP and now chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Tecnology.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's contentious post.

In a Facebook post, Dr Pullicino Orlando asked why people should be punished for "cleaning" the country's monuments. 

"It seeems the police do not have enough to do so they are going to be wasting time on such a farce. With the same reasoning, I can call for an investigation against those picking up my garbage bags outside my home every morning."

The Civil Society Network had asked the Valletta police to protect the makeshift memorial after Labour councillor Ray Azzopardi filed a motion to remove it. The councillor had said that Caruana Galizia shrine was a defacement of a national monument.

Prominent government officials, including Valletta 2018 chairman Jason Micallef, posted disparaging remarks about  the murdered journalist over the weekend.