Matthew Caruana Galizia calls Fenech acquittal 'disgusting', backs retrial push
Matthew Caruana Galizia has backed calls for a retrial of Yorgen Fenech, acquitted two days ago over complicity in his mother Daphne's 2017 assassination.
Son of murdered journalist backs challenge to Fenech acquittal
Matthew Caruana Galizia has publicly endorsed calls for a retrial of Yorgen Fenech, two days after a jury acquitted Fenech of complicity in the 2017 assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, according to Lovin Malta.
"The push for a retrial is the right thing," Caruana Galizia said in a statement issued on Friday afternoon.
The jury returned a not guilty verdict on both charges — complicity in the assassination and criminal association — by eight votes to one.
Caruana Galizia described the outcome as a "disgusting verdict", arguing it could not extinguish what he characterised as the truth of Fenech's alleged involvement.
"This disgusting verdict can never erase the truth of the complicity in murder that Fenech himself admitted to numerous times," he said.
Fenech has denied any role in the killing and pleaded not guilty. He has now been acquitted by a jury.
Caruana Galizia urged Malta's institutions — including the judiciary — not to treat Wednesday's verdict as the final word on the case.
"All branches of the state including the judiciary must not allow our country to be one in which people get away with murder," he said.
His statement comes as pressure mounts on prosecutors to examine whether legal grounds exist to challenge the acquittal and initiate fresh proceedings.
The verdict has prompted swift political fallout: Parliament was urgently reconvened on Friday to debate the repercussions of the case.
Almost nine years after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb outside her home in Bidnija, no one has been convicted of commissioning her murder.
Source: Lovin Malta