Action against a police sergeant who celebrated the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia on Facebook is still pending, a year after the journalist’s death.

Replying to a question in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon by Opposition MP Karol Aquilina, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said that action against the police officer was still pending due to “medical reasons” without divulging any other details.

The sergeant, Ramon Mifsud, was suspended after he celebrated Ms Caruana Galizia's murder on Facebook, writing "what goes around comes around, cow dung! Feeling happy."  He is being investigated by the Public Service Commission. 

Reacting to the comments, which were made just hours after Ms Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb just outside her Bidnija home, the Malta Police Association had said that it condemned any comment which backed the barbaric murder and dissociated itself with whoever made it or backed it.

"Such comments go directly against the nature of police work, as the police have a duty to fight crime.

"The police are there to safeguard everyone's security and not, on the contrary, to approve of the most serious of criminal acts which could even undermine the fundamental rights of all people in a democracy," the association had said.

The Office of the Prime Minister had also said the sergeant's comments were reprehensible and did not befit any citizen, let alone an officer whose role was to protect all Maltese citizens.