Vigil Held Outside US Embassy Over Killings Of Renee Good & Alex Pretti

Civil society NGO Repubblika held a silent vigil on Tuesday evening outside the United States embassy in Malta to commemorate two people who were shot and killed during encounters with US immigration authorities.

Speaking at the gathering, Repubblika president Vicki Ann Cremona warned that the weakening of the rule of law in the world’s most powerful democracy carried consequences far beyond American borders.

Cremona stressed that the vigil was not driven by hostility towards the United States, but by concern that what she called the “American idea”, that power must be accountable to law and that human dignity is unconditional, was being damaged.

Referring to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, she said their cases required “answers, accountability and truth”, arguing that cruelty was increasingly being framed as policy and force was taking the place of law in immigration enforcement.

She cautioned that when such practices occur in a leading democracy, they risk being copied elsewhere, allowing authoritarian governments to justify repression in the name of security and weakening global human rights standards.

Cremona cited deaths in detention, family separations and the treatment of children as practices incompatible with liberal democracy.

Addressing criticism of the vigil by Malta’s prime minister, Cremona rejected the notion that silence served the national interest.

Demonstrators present lit candles for the victims and held moments of silence in their honour.

#MaltaDaily