Wealthy businessman goes on trial over murder of Maltese journalist

By Christopher Scicluna

VALLETTA, July 1 (Reuters) – A wealthy Maltese businessman accused of ordering the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia went on trial on Wednesday, nine years after the death of the journalist who investigated corruption on the small Mediterranean island.

Yorgen Fenech, 44, was charged with complicity in her killing and criminal association. He has denied any wrongdoing. He faces life in jail if found guilty. 

Caruana Galizia died in 2017 when a bomb placed in her car blew up as she drove away from her home —  a killing that shocked Europe and triggered a political earthquake on Malta.

In pre-trial proceedings, prosecutors alleged that Fenech commissioned a former taxi driver, Melvin Theuma, to find someone to carry out the murder. 

Theuma eventually confessed to the authorities about his middleman role, saying he received €150,000 ($170,000) from Fenech as payment. After being given a pardon from prosecution, he detailed how the killing was carried out.

CARUANA GALIZIA HAD BEEN INVESTIGATING FENECH’S FIRM

Fenech was arrested in late 2019 on a yacht off Malta in what prosecutors say was an escape bid. The trial was delayed for several years by legal wrangling over various procedural issues. 

Three men who carried out the bombing were arrested weeks after the murder and pleaded guilty at the start of their trial. Two were handed life sentences and another a reduced sentence in return for information.

Two men who supplied the bomb were given life sentences in 2025.

Theuma had told police that he had recruited the bombers and planned the murder in a popular café. 

After weeks of monitoring the 52-year-old target, they placed a bomb under her car seat. It was detonated by remote control from an offshore yacht following a signal by one of the men watching the site. Caruana Galizia died instantly.

Fenech headed the Tumas Group, which has vast interests spanning gaming, hospitality and leisure, management, and property development. 

Reuters reported in 2020 that in the months before her murder, Caruana Galizia was on the trail of an offshore company called 17 Black, set up, she said, to channel corrupt payments to Malta’s leaders. 

Following the murder it was revealed that Fenech was the owner of 17 Black. 

The assassination sparked a political crisis in Malta that drove the then prime minister, Joseph Muscat, from office in 2020, although he was never linked to the murder.

The trial is being held before a panel of jurors and is expected to last for several weeks.

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(Reporting by Christopher Scicluna; Editing by Crispian Balmer)