Trial begins in Malta for the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

The trial of Yorgen Fenech, accused as the 'mastermind' behind the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has opened in Valletta.

Trial begins in Malta for the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

The trial of Yorgen Fenech, a 44-year-old businessman and heir to a major real-estate empire in Malta, has begun in Valletta. He stands accused of orchestrating the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in October 2017 when a bomb exploded inside her car.

According to the prosecution, Fenech initially approached an acquaintance, Melvin Theuma, asking him to organize the killing. The alleged motive was fear that the journalist was about to publish damaging revelations about Fenech and a relative. Theuma then contacted brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, agreeing on a payment of €150,000 — a sum he claims to have received in cash from Fenech inside a coffee envelope. Later, Theuma secured a presidential pardon in exchange for testifying against Fenech and has lived under witness protection since 2019.

In June 2025, two other men charged with supplying explosives, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The Degiorgio brothers received 40-year sentences for placing and detonating the bomb, while their accomplice Vincent Muscat was handed a 15-year prison term.

Before her death, Caruana Galizia had been investigating a controversial power-station deal linked to Fenech. It later emerged that the defendant himself owned the secret offshore company "17 Black," which had also been a subject of the journalist's reporting.

The start of the trial had been at risk due to an appeal filed by Fenech with the Constitutional Court on 25 June, in which he argued that his right to a fair trial had been violated because of an alleged surveillance setup in the prison consultation room. The court agreed to examine his appeal but rejected his request to suspend the main proceedings.

Jury selection proved difficult: the two sides needed five hours to reach an agreement, and a substitute juror fainted as temperatures reached 33°C. Under Maltese criminal law, jurors will remain isolated throughout the trial, housed in a hotel without access to mobile phones, computers, or smartwatches.

The murder sparked international outrage and focused attention on the rule of law in the island nation. The scandal ultimately led to the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in January 2020, following mass demonstrations accusing him of shielding allies from investigation. A 2021 public inquiry concluded that the government had created a "climate of impunity" in which the killers believed they could act with immunity.

Caruana Galizia's husband, three sons, and two sisters are following the trial. On Friday, her younger sister Mandy Mallia wrote on social media about the pain caused by listening to alleged audio recordings in which Fenech insists the journalist should not have survived the attack. "Justice for Daphne cannot wait any longer," she wrote. "Malta must rise to the occasion." The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Source: DW

Source: Google News GR — Crime (el)