Maltese tycoon paid €150,000 to have journalist killed, court hears
Yorgen Fenech, one of Malta's wealthiest businessmen, stood trial accused of paying €150,000 to three hitmen to murder investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Maltese tycoon paid €150,000 to have journalist killed, court hears
A wealthy Maltese property heir went on trial in Valletta on Wednesday, accused of paying €150,000 to three contract killers to assassinate one of the country's best-known investigative reporters, according to The Guardian as reported by Telex.
Yorgen Fenech, 44, whose family empire includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, faces charges over the October 2017 car-bomb murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He was arrested in November 2019 but released on bail early last year. Appearing before a jury in a dark-blue suit and glasses, he pleaded not guilty to both counts: complicity in intentional homicide and membership of a criminal organisation.
Fenech is the seventh and final defendant in the case. Of the other six, five have already been convicted and one struck a plea deal. Prosecutors allege the murder plot was hatched in April 2017, when Fenech asked an acquaintance, Melvin Theuma — a taxi boss and illegal bookmaker — to find someone to "liquidate" Caruana Galizia. He reportedly suggested George Degiorgio, a known figure in Malta's underworld.
Theuma eventually brokered a €150,000 deal with the Degiorgio brothers and a third man. The plan was briefly paused because of elections in June, but after the governing Labour Party won, Fenech allegedly ordered it to proceed and handed Theuma a cash-stuffed envelope. By then, Fenech was said to be pushing for faster action because the journalist was preparing to publish damaging material about him.
The hit team chose a bomb over firearms. After weeks of surveillance, they hid an explosive device inside a children's shoebox under the driver's seat. George Degiorgio detonated it by text message from his boat in harbour as Caruana Galizia left home. Her son Matthew was first to reach the burning wreck.
The killing plunged Malta into a deep political and constitutional crisis that forced prime minister Joseph Muscat to resign in 2019, shortly after Fenech's arrest. Investigators gradually mapped the network. When Theuma was arrested in 2019, he handed police USB drives hidden in an ice-cream box containing secretly recorded conversations with Fenech. In exchange, he received a presidential pardon and remains in a witness-protection programme.
The Degiorgio brothers, who planted and triggered the bomb, were jailed for 40 years in 2022. Their accomplice Vincent Muscat received 15 years after cooperating. Two men accused of procuring the explosives, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, were sentenced to life in June 2025.
The chief prosecutor is now seeking life imprisonment for Fenech for the murder itself, plus an additional 20–30 years for organised-crime involvement. The trial is being held under tight security: under Maltese law, the selected jurors are sequestered for the entire proceedings, housed in a hotel, and barred from using computers, mobile phones or smartwatches.
Caruana Galizia was a prominent magazine publisher, journalist and blogger who exposed corruption among Malta's leading politicians and business figures. She was facing 43 lawsuits when she was killed. Her case partly prompted the European Union to adopt legislation in 2023 against lawsuits aimed at silencing journalists and rights defenders.
Source: Telex