Maltese Businessman Acquitted of Hiring Bomb Gang That Killed Investigative Journalist

A Maltese business tycoon was acquitted on Sept. 2 of ordering the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb nine years ago.

Yorgen Fenech, 44, heir to a property empire ‌that includes hotels and casinos, was indicted in 2021 on charges of complicity and criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors accused him of being the mastermind of the 2017 attack and of having ordered and paid for it.

He was found not guilty by a court in Valletta of complicity in murder and the lesser charge of criminal association to commit murder. Had he been found guilty, he could ​have faced up to life imprisonment. Fenech was cleared of both counts by an 8–1 margin after ​eight hours of deliberation by the jury.

Fenech family members screamed while the relatives of Caruana Galizia wept in the packed courtroom.

“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed,” her family said in a statement. “Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again. Our country failed to protect Daphne’s life. ​It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”

Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed when a phone text message triggered a bomb under her car as she drove away from her home in Bidnija on Oct. 16, 2017. She was a well-known journalist who frequently wrote about political corruption.

Three men have previously been convicted of carrying out the killing, ‌and two others were found guilty of⁠ supplying the bomb. All are serving lengthy jail sentences.

Caruana Galizia had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta. Investigative reports targeted people in then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s inner circle whom she accused of having offshore companies in tax havens disclosed in the Panama Papers leak. She also targeted the opposition and business leaders in Malta.

At the time of her death, she was facing more than 40 libel suits.

In Malta, prosecutors cannot appeal the verdict, except on points of law, which is rare. The Maltese government has called for calm in the wake of the verdicts, which bring to an end a political scandal that has lasted almost a decade.

An independent inquiry into the killing published in 2021 concluded that the Maltese state “has to bear responsibility” for the assassination due to a culture of impunity that emanated from the highest levels of government.

The Committee to Protect Journalists’ deputy director of advocacy, Tom Gibson, was in Valletta for the verdict.

“Yesterday’s verdict means that almost nine years after Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination sent shockwaves through Europe, Malta has still not convicted the person who orchestrated the crime,” Gibson said on Sept. 3. “It is heartbreaking for her family, who have campaigned tirelessly for justice.”

Reuters contributed to this report.