Jury in Malta acquits businessman in killing of investigative journalist

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VALLETA, Malta (AP) — A jury in Malta on Wednesday acquitted the Maltese businessman accused of being the mastermind of the 2017 car bomb killing of crusading investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Caruana Galizia’s killing shocked Europe, led to protests that toppled a prime minister and exposed a culture of impunity on the Mediterranean island nation, the European Union’s smallest.

Yorgen Fenech, a prominent Maltese businessman, was indicted in 2021 on charges of complicity and criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors accused him of being the mastermind of the slaying and of having ordered and paid for it.

He pleaded not guilty and the jury on Wednesday found him not guilty on both counts.

Fenech was the last of a half-dozen people charged in the plot to be prosecuted.

Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed on Oct. 16, 2017, by a car bomb that was detonated while she was driving near her home.

She had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta, with investigative reports targeting 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.

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.

Fenech was involved in a consortium that won a controversial contract with the Maltese government to build a power station.

His arrest in 2019, as he was sailing away from Malta on his yacht, sparked a series of mass protests in the country that culminated with Muscat’s resignation. After he was acquitted of all charges Wednesday, he walked out of the Valletta courtroom to a chaotic scene outside, with hecklers yelling as he walked into a waiting car. He made no comment.

Caruana Galizia's children were at the forefront in demanding accountability and justice for her death. Her sons were in the courtroom when the verdict was read out but left without commenting.

In a statement later posted to Facebook, the family said the verdict denied Caruana Galizia the “justice she deserves."

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

No cameras were allowed in the courtroom, as is typical in Maltese criminal trials.

In 2022, George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred Degiorgio both pleaded guilty to carrying out the slaying. They were each sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In 2025, two other men were sentenced to life in prison, the maximum penalty possible, after being convicted of complicity in the murder. Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were accused of supplying the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia.

Another man, Vincent Muscat, pleaded guilty in 2021 for his role in the slaying, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A self-confessed middleman, taxi driver Melvin Theuma, was granted a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for testimony.