Businessman Yorgen Fenech was accused of ordering the car bombing that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, an event that shocked the island nation. A Maltese court decided to acquit her on Wednesday, the family of the investigative journalist deplores a denial of justice.

Published on: 02/09/2026 - 23:31 Modified on: 03/09/2026 - 07:35

A Maltese court on Wednesday (September 2) acquitted tycoon Yorgen Fenech, accused of orchestrating the brutal 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, his family said in a statement.

The businessman was accused of ordering the car bombing that killed 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia, an event that shocked the island nation and sparked a wave of global condemnation.

The popular jury deliberated for more than eight hours and decided, by eight votes to one, that Yorgen Fenech was innocent of the charges against him.

This tycoon was arrested at the end of 2019 on board his yacht while trying to leave Malta.

Read alsoThe son of the journalist murdered in Malta demands justice

Behind the Panama Papers in Malta

The accused, who denied having ordered the murder of the journalist, won a contract worth several million euros with the Maltese state in 2013 for the construction of a gas-fired power station.

According to the indictment, the businessman had ordered the murder of the journalist because she was about to publish a compromising article about one of his relatives.

Daphne Caruana Galizia had dug into the Maltese part of the journalistic investigation into the Panama Papers, and had been at the origin of revelations on scandals involving several close friends of the Prime Minister at the time, Joseph Muscat.

Accused of having interfered and protected collaborators in the investigation into the murder of the journalist, Joseph Muscat announced his resignation at the end of 2019 – effective at the beginning of 2020 – under the pressure of daily demonstrations.

Read alsoMurder of Daphne Caruana: the Maltese Prime Minister cornered

In October 2022, two brothers were sentenced to 40 years in prison each for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. They were found guilty of making, planting and detonating the bomb that killed the journalist near her home. Then, in June 2025, two other men were sentenced to life imprisonment for supplying the explosive used in the attack.

Institutional failures “neither addressed nor corrected”

“Yorgen Fenech was acquitted of the brutal murder of Daphne, nine years after she was killed, thus depriving her of the justice she deserves. We remain grateful to all those who worked to bring Fenech to justice,” the family responded in a statement sent following the verdict. "This should have been Daphne's day. Her dreams and ours were shattered when she was murdered in front of her family home, aged just 53. It is high time that all those who enabled, facilitated or protected her murderers were held to account."

"Nine years after Daphne's brutal assassination, the institutional failures that made her murder possible have still not been addressed or corrected. Our country failed to protect Daphne's life. It must, out of respect for her, prevent further lives from being lost," the family concluded in its statement.

“We are more than outraged. This verdict means that, almost nine years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese authorities have still not succeeded in identifying or convicting the perpetrator,” lamented the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a press release.

"Justice must be fully served and the Maltese authorities must implement the long-awaited measures to protect journalists and press freedom. The absence of these measures contributed to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, as concluded by the public inquiry into this crime five years ago," concluded RSF.

With AFP

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