Murder of Caruana Galizia: Who Gave the Order Remains Unanswered
The acquittal of businessman Yorgen Fenech left open the central question regarding the 2017 murder of the Maltese journalist.
The acquittal that did not close the case
Almost nine years after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta remains without an answer to the most critical question in the case: who paid for her to be killed. According to In.gr, the acquittal of 44-year-old businessman Yorgen Fenech — heir to one of the largest fortunes in the country — not only failed to close the case, but brought it back with heightened intensity to public discourse.
The jury's decision came after the longest murder trial in Malta's history. The journalist's family characterised the outcome a "denial of justice", whilst the opposition called for the immediate recall of parliament.
Bomb beneath the driver's seat
Caruana Galizia was murdered on 16 October 2017, when a bomb placed beneath the driver's seat exploded her rented car just metres from her home. For years she had become one of the most powerful and simultaneously most divisive journalistic voices in Malta. Her blog, Running Commentary, gathered a huge readership and published revelations about politicians, businessmen and financial interests.
Her work had begun to isolate her. Her son, Andrew, testified that the atmosphere around her had become suffocating: people stared at her persistently when she circulated in Valletta, she limited her outings and frequently changed her daily habits. In the past there had been instances of arson, and the family's dogs had also been killed.
Despite the threats, she continued to investigate cases that reached the top of political power. Through the Panama Papers she had identified offshore companies linked to then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the chief of staff of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri. In the period before her murder she was also investigating an energy project worth approximately 500 million euros — the construction of a power generation unit using natural gas. A shareholder of the Electrogas company, which undertook the project, was Yorgen Fenech.
The prosecutor would argue years later that Fenech had a motive to stop new revelations. The jury, however, was not convinced.
The FBI and the disposable phones
The investigation into the murder moved quickly at first. Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and their accomplice Vincent Muscat had used disposable mobile phones to organise the attack, but made a serious mistake: they frequently carried them alongside their personal phones. The FBI's mobile phone analysis team, which was in Europe at that time and arrived in Malta a few hours after the explosion, managed to connect the devices to each other and even identified the message that is said to have been used to detonate the bomb.
In December 2017 the three men were arrested. The two brothers were later sentenced to life imprisonment, whilst Vincent Muscat received a 15-year sentence after agreeing to cooperate with the authorities. The executors, according to what was presented in court, did not know who the ultimate person giving the orders was. Muscat, however, knew a critical name: that of the intermediary.
"I socialised with a lion"
Melvin Theuma was a taxi driver and a man of the racecourse. He had met Fenech and the two men developed a relationship, although Theuma never presented it as a relationship between equals. "I socialised with a lion and I am a mosquito," he said once in court. According to the extensive Guardian reporting, which In.gr records, the prosecutor presented him as the man who connected Fenech with the executors.
In 2019 Theuma received a presidential pardon in exchange for his testimony and became the central witness in the case. The secret recordings he had made — because, as he claimed, he feared for his life — became one of the most important pieces of evidence in the trial. In one of them Fenech was heard saying: "Don't worry about me, no one can touch me."
Leaks and political connections
The trial, although it did not result in a conviction for the mastermind of the murder, brought to light a dark picture of what was taking place around the investigation. According to what was presented in court, the police had identified Fenech as a suspect as early as September 2018, but months passed before approval was given for surveillance of his telephone communications. The relevant warrants were signed by then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat himself — the head of government who was a key subject of the murdered journalist's investigations.
Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri also participated in briefings about the police investigation. The accusation that emerged later was explosive: that Schembri leaked confidential information to Fenech regarding the investigation. Fenech admitted that he passed information he received from Schembri to Theuma, whilst in an earlier court proceeding he had stated that Schembri was informed "constantly" and almost "in real time". The two men were not simply colleagues: they played football together, went on holiday and maintained a close personal relationship.
The acquittal of Fenech left the question of who ordered the murder unanswered, triggering fresh political turmoil in a country that continues to seek justice for its most famous journalist.
Source: In.gr