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A Maltese court acquitted tycoon Yorgen Fenech of orchestrating the car-bomb killing of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia on Wednesday, sparking outrage from her family and media freedom advocates.
The wealthy businessman had stood accused of masterminding the 2017 assassination of 53-year-old Caruana Galizia, which sparked unprecedented protests and brought down a government.
Caruana Galizia’s family said in a statement that Fenech’s acquittal was “denying her the justice she deserves.”
Her son Matthew Caruana Galizia said jurors had made a “terrible decision…that our country may never recover from.”
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) said the verdict sent “a disturbing message to those who attack and kill journalists.”
Dubbed a “one-woman WikiLeaks”, Caruana Galizia had exposed corruption at the highest level in the country, shining a spotlight on murky links between Malta’s business and political elites.
Her murder shocked the world and put Malta, the European Union’s smallest member state, in the spotlight over its apparent rule-of-law failings.
The killing also led to a political crisis and the resignation of then-premier Joseph Muscat in January 2020 after widespread anger and mass protests over his perceived efforts to protect friends and allies from the investigation.
A two-year public inquiry published in July 2021 concluded that the state should “shoulder responsibility” for the murder due to the “atmosphere of impunity” the government had created.
Fenech, a tycoon whose business interests spanned the energy and tourism sectors, was arrested on his yacht in 2019 as he tried to sail out of Malta after a middleman in the murder was offered a pardon to identify those involved.
Prosecutors had accused Fenech of ordering the journalist to be killed because she was on the brink of publishing a compromising article about his uncle.
‘Beyond outraged’
Five people have been convicted so far in relation to the murder for supplying the explosives and carrying out the killing.
In June 2025, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were convicted of supplying the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia and sentenced to life in prison.
The three men who carried out the murder, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio together with Vince Muscat, are serving prison sentences after being found guilty of their role.
A 437-page report written by a panel of three judges in 2021 found that the state had shirked its duty to protect Caruana Galizia and subjected her to personal attacks and verbal abuse from politicians.
The atmosphere created a “favourable climate” for her assassination and there was “convincing evidence” that her killers knew they would be protected by “persons in the highest state positions.”
“Accountability is now overdue for all those who enabled, facilitated, or protected her murderers,” the family said in their statement on Tuesday.
“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed.”
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “beyond outraged.”
“The verdict means that almost nine years since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese authorities have failed to identify and convict the mastermind.
“Full justice must be served and Maltese authorities must implement the long overdue measures protecting journalists and media freedom,” it added.
Additional sources • AFP