Businessman accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia acquitted in Malta

Jorgen Fenech, the Maltese businessman accused of organizing and financing the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has been found not guilty by a jury in Malta.

Prosecutors alleged that Fenech had planned the attack, ordered the killing and paid the perpetrators. He was charged in 2021 with aiding and abetting the crime, but the jury decided to acquit him of both charges after reviewing the case.

Caruana Galizia lost her life on 16 October 2017, after a bomb placed in her vehicle exploded near her home. The event caused shock in Malta and Europe, mass protests and a political crisis that ended with the resignation of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

The journalist’s children, who were present in the courtroom during the verdict, reacted with a statement on Facebook. According to them, the verdict denied their mother the justice she deserved.

“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal murder, the institutional failures that allowed her killing remain unresolved and unreformed,” the statement said.

Fenech was the last of six defendants accused in the murder plot to face trial.

The journalist was known for her investigations into corruption and the links between politics and business in Malta. In her writing, she had also reported on people close to then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, as well as companies registered in tax havens that were made public through the Panama Papers.

Before she was killed, Caruana Galizia faced more than 40 libel suits.

An independent inquiry, published in 2021, concluded that the Maltese state should bear responsibility for creating a climate of impunity that had contributed to the journalist’s murder.

The businessman was part of a consortium that had received a controversial contract from the Maltese government to build a power plant.

Fenech’s arrest in 2019, as he was trying to leave Malta on his yacht, sparked mass protests and increased pressure on the government. That situation ultimately led to Muscat’s resignation.

George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred admitted in 2022 that they were guilty of the murder and were each sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were found guilty of complicity in the murder and, in 2025, were sentenced to life imprisonment. They were accused of having supplied the bomb used to kill the journalist.

Vincent Muscat, who pleaded guilty in 2021, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A taxi driver, who said he had acted as an “intermediary” in the case, received a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for his testimony.