Maltese businessman acquitted of alleged role in 2017 journalist murder
A Maltese jury found businessman Yorgen Fenech not guilty of complicity and conspiracy in the 2017 car-bomb killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
A jury in Malta on Wednesday acquitted Yorgen Fenech, a prominent businessman, of the charges of complicity and criminal conspiracy linked to the 2017 car-bomb murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Prosecutors had alleged that Fenech acted as the mastermind behind the attack, but the jury returned a not-guilty verdict on both counts.
Fenech was the last of six individuals charged in connection with the plot. The killing of Caruana Galizia on Oct. 16, 2017, sparked widespread protests and led to the resignation of then-prime minister Joseph Muscat. An independent inquiry in 2021 concluded that the Maltese state bore responsibility for the murder due to a culture of impunity at the highest levels of government.
Two brothers, George and Alfred Degiorgio, pleaded guilty in 2022 and were sentenced to 40 years each for carrying out the bombing. In 2025, Jamie Vella and Robert Agius received life sentences for supplying the bomb, while Vincent Muscat was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty in 2021. Taxi driver Melvin Theuma, who testified that Fenech ordered and funded the killing, was granted a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for his testimony.