Trial of Fenech for Caruana Galizia murder: €150,000 to executors
The trial of businessman Yorgen Fenech began in Valletta, accused of paying €150,000 for the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017.
Trial for the murder of investigative journalist in Malta
On Wednesday morning, the trial of 44-year-old businessman Yorgen Fenech opened in the courts of Valletta. Fenech is the heir to a property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino and is accused of financing the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. According to Naftemporiki, which draws information from the Guardian, Fenech is the last of seven men referred to trial in the case.
Caruana Galizia was murdered on 16 October 2017, just before 15:00, when a bomb placed under her car seat exploded and ejected her vehicle into a field. The explosive device was contained in a shoe box. The perpetrators had broken into her vehicle the previous evening, after monitoring her for weeks.
The journalist had exposed cases of corruption involving high-ranking officials and took part in the international investigation into the Panama Papers. Shortly before her murder, she was investigating relationships between the business community and political elite in Malta.
The indictment: plan from April 2017
According to the indictment read at the opening of the trial, Fenech developed the murder plan in April 2017. He called his friend Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver and known gambler, to a meeting near the Hilton, where Theuma had secured a lucrative spot for picking up visitors.
Fenech asked Theuma, who acted as a middleman, to find someone to kill Caruana Galizia, even providing him with the name of a possible executor: George Degiorgio, a member of a well-known gang. The motive, according to the indictment, was that the journalist was about to publish an article about his uncle.
Theuma contacted George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred, and a fee of €150,000 was agreed, with an advance payment of €30,000. The execution was temporarily suspended due to the general elections on 3 June 2017. Two weeks after the return of the Labour government to power, the prosecutor alleges that Fenech ordered the plan to be continued and personally handed Theuma an envelope containing cash. As weeks and months passed, Fenech, according to the indictment, repeatedly pressured for implementation, this time citing an impending article by the journalist about himself.
The charges and the course of the trial
Fenech faces two charges: complicity in wilful homicide and participation in a criminal organisation. He denies all charges.
The trial began after years of delays. In February, the businessman was released on bail, as the statutory period of remand detention had expired. The selection of jurors took five hours, amid concerns about the level of public interest in the case.
In 2013, Fenech had secured a contract worth several million euros with the Maltese government for the construction of a natural gas power generation station — one of the business activities investigated by Caruana Galizia.
Source: Naftemporiki