Yorgen Fenech acquitted of Daphne Caruana Galizia murder in Malta jury verdict
A Maltese jury has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of involvement in the 2017 car bomb murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Malta jury clears tycoon Fenech in Caruana Galizia car bomb case
A jury in Malta has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of complicity in the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Google News MT reports, in a verdict that has drawn widespread outrage from press freedom advocates and the journalist's family.
Caruana Galizia was killed in October 2017 when a car bomb exploded beneath her vehicle near her home in Bidnija. She had been one of Malta's most prominent anti-corruption reporters, known for exposing alleged links between senior officials and financial wrongdoing.
Fenech, one of Malta's wealthiest businessmen, had been accused of plotting the assassination. Three men convicted of carrying out the bombing had previously implicated him as the mastermind behind the killing.
The acquittal was reported simultaneously by multiple major outlets including Reuters, Al Jazeera, and the Times of Malta. The verdict has been met with condemnation from journalists' organisations and opposition figures, who described the outcome as a blow to accountability in the country.
Caruana Galizia's family and supporters had long pressed Maltese authorities for a full accounting of who ordered the killing. The case has drawn sustained international scrutiny, with the European Parliament among the institutions calling for justice.
Source: Google News MT