A Maltese jury has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of helping to arrange the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, ending the long-running trial over a killing that shook Europe and triggered the resignation of Malta’s prime minister.
Fenech, 44, was found not guilty by eight votes to one on both charges: complicity in the journalist’s murder and association with others to commit a crime. He had denied prosecutors’ allegations that he ordered and paid for the assassination.
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday at Malta’s law courts in Valletta after about eight hours of deliberations by a nine-member jury. Fenech, one of the island’s wealthiest businessmen, left the building under police escort as protesters shouted insults, including “assassin” and “mafia”.
His lawyer, Gianella De Marco, said the defence was pleased with the decision and argued that the jury had rejected the evidence of a key prosecution witness, taxi driver Melvin Theuma.
Theuma was granted a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for giving evidence. He told investigators that Fenech had been involved in arranging the killing and that €150,000 had been paid through him, claims Fenech consistently rejected.
Family says Daphne Caruana Galizia has been denied justice
Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed on 16 October 2017 when a bomb planted in her car exploded as she drove near her home in Bidnija. Her reporting had focused on suspected corruption among Malta’s political and business elite, including people connected to the administration of then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Her murder provoked international condemnation and mass protests in Malta. Fenech’s arrest in November 2019, as he attempted to leave the island on his yacht, intensified the political crisis and was followed by Mr Muscat’s resignation.
An independent inquiry concluded in 2021 that the Maltese state had to bear responsibility for creating a culture of impunity that allowed the killing to take place. It found no proof that the government had directly ordered the murder, but said the authorities had created a favourable climate for it.
Caruana Galizia’s sons were in court for the verdict but did not speak to reporters afterwards. In a statement, the family said the decision denied her “the justice she deserves”.
“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed,” the family said. “Our country failed to protect Daphne. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”
Malta’s opposition Nationalist Party held a silent march in Valletta on Wednesday evening. It said it respected the jury’s decision but demanded that those who ordered the killing still be identified.
“After years of investigations, inquiries and judicial proceedings, justice has still not reached where it needed to reach – neither for Daphne’s family nor for our country,” the party said.
Other convictions in the Daphne Caruana Galizia case
Fenech was the last of six men charged in connection with the plot to face trial. George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred pleaded guilty in 2022 to carrying out the murder and were each sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025 after being convicted of complicity in the killing. Prosecutors accused them of supplying the bomb used in the attack.
Another man, Vincent Muscat, admitted his role in 2021 and received a 15-year prison sentence.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said the latest verdict was heartbreaking for Caruana Galizia’s family, who were still waiting for accountability nearly nine years after her death. The organisation said it would continue to press for justice for everyone involved in the murder.
