Businessman Acquitted Of Commissioning Murder Of Maltese Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

Nine years after investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb outside her home in Malta, businessman Yorgen Fenech has been found not guilty of complicity for allegedly masterminding her assassination.

The nine-member jury returned its verdict on the evening of September 2 after about 8 hours of deliberation, voting 8-1 on the charge of complicity and 8-1 on the other charge he faced for alleged criminal association. 

The verdict at the Law Courts in Valletta, Malta's capital, closes what has been one of the longest jury trials in the country’s history, running to 55 sitting days since it opened on July 1.

Fenech, 44, the former chief executive of the Tumas Group, had pleaded not guilty. 

The prosecution, led by Anthony Vella and Godwin Cini, is expected to appeal the verdict. It argued that Fenech commissioned and financed the killing, paying self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma 150,000 euros ($ 170,00) to engage the hitmen, and that he passed Theuma information about the police investigation in the two years that followed. Theuma was granted a presidential pardon to testify in the case.

The trial laid out defendant Fenech's web of contacts across Malta's political elite: his WhatsApp exchanges with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, regulatory heads, and the deputy police commissioner who once headed the investigation into the murder.

Fenech's defense, led by Giannella de Marco and Charles Mercieca, told jurors that the state had built its case on a pardoned accomplice while failing to investigate others.

Taking the stand himself in August, Fenech said former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri was the "real mastermind" and that he had acted only as an intermediary between Schembri and Theuma. Schembri, who testified over three days in late July, denied any involvement and told the court he was "600 million percent" not the mastermind. He has not been charged in connection with the murder.

Five other men have been convicted for roles in killing Caruana Galizia. Vince Muscat pleaded guilty in February 2021 and was jailed for 15 years. Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, who planted and detonated the bomb, pleaded guilty in October 2022 and were each sentenced to 40 years. Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, who supplied the military-grade explosive, were sentenced to life.

Theuma, who admitted his role as a middleman, received a presidential pardon in November 2019 in exchange for his evidence. He testified for eight days, telling the court that Fenech had asked him about arranging the murder weeks before the 2017 general election, and breaking down in tears as he apologized to Caruana Galizia's sons. The prosecution raised issues surrounding his credibility.

Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed on October 16, 2017 when a bomb placed under the driver's seat of her car was detonated as she drove away from her home. She had spent her final years reporting on corruption at the top of Maltese politics and business, including two companies tied to Fenech.

The prosecution alleged that Fenech was motivated to kill her as she attempted to expose alleged irregularities around 17 Black, his United Arab Emirates-based company at the center of a corruption case, and the ElectroGas power station consortium in which Fenech was a director and shareholder.

Fenech was CEO of the Tumas Group, a business empire founded by his grandfather, when he was arrested on November 20, 2019 aboard his yacht as it left the Portomaso marina. The arrest occurred hours after then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that a suspected middleman had been offered a pardon. He was arraigned 10 days later and indicted in 2021.

Caruana Galizia’s murder triggered mass protests and the resignations of Schembri and, in January 2020, of Muscat himself. A public inquiry concluded in July 2021 that the state bore responsibility for creating a culture of impunity and for failing to protect her.