Jury in Malta acquits businessman in killing of investigative journalist

VALLETA, Malta — A jury in Malta on Wednesday acquitted Yorgen Fenech, a prominent Maltese businessman, of being the mastermind behind the 2017 car‑bomb assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Fenech had been indicted in 2021 on charges of complicity and criminal conspiracy, with prosecutors alleging he ordered and financed the killing. After pleading not guilty, the jury found him not guilty on both counts.

The murder of Caruana Galizia, 53, sent shockwaves across Europe. It triggered widespread protests that ultimately led to the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and exposed a deep‑seated culture of impunity on the Mediterranean island, the European Union’s smallest member.

Fenech was the last of about half a dozen individuals charged in connection with the case. Others have already been convicted: brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio received 40‑year sentences in 2022 for carrying out the attack; Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were given life sentences in 2025 for supplying the bomb; Vincent Muscat was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty in 2021; and taxi driver Melvin Theuma received a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for testimony.

Caruana Galizia had been a vocal critic of corruption in Malta’s political and business circles. Her reporting focused on offshore companies linked to the Panama Papers and implicated figures close to Muscat’s government, as well as opposition leaders and other businessmen. At the time of her death she faced more than 40 libel suits.

An independent inquiry published in 2021 concluded that the Maltese state “has to bear responsibility” for the assassination because of systemic impunity that reached the highest levels of government. Fenech was part of a consortium that secured a controversial contract to build a power station with the Maltese government.

Fenech’s arrest in 2019, as he sailed away from Malta on his yacht, sparked massive protests that culminated in Muscat’s resignation. After the acquittal, he walked out of the Valletta courtroom amid a chaotic scene, with hecklers shouting as he entered a waiting car; he made no public comment.

Caruana Galizia’s children have been at the forefront of the call for accountability. Her sons were present in the courtroom when the verdict was delivered but left without comment. In a Facebook statement, the family said the verdict denied Caruana Galizia the “justice she deserves” and warned that “nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed.” They added, “Our country failed to protect Daphne. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”

No cameras were permitted inside the courtroom, in line with standard practice for criminal trials in Malta.

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