Malta court clears businessman over murder of investigative journalist

Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was accused of commissioning the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, was acquitted on Wednesday at the end of a two-month trial.

Fenech, 44, was tried for complicity to murder and for the lesser charge of criminal association to commit murder.

Had he been found guilty, he could have faced up to life imprisonment.

Fenech was cleared of both counts by an 8-1 margin after eight hours of deliberation by the jury.

The killing of Caruana Galizia in October 2017 shocked Europe and set off a political firestorm in Malta as well as focusing international attention on its police and judiciary.

Fenech family members screamed with delight while the relatives of Caruana Galizia wept in a packed courtroom in Valletta.

"Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed," her family said in a statement.

"Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again. Our country failed to protect Daphne’s life. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost."

Fenech did not comment when he left the courtroom under heavy police escort and with insults hurled at him by a crowd of people.

The heir to a property empire that includes hotels and casinos, Fenech was arrested in 2019.

Three men have been convicted of carrying out the killing and two others for supplying the bomb after earlier trials and are now serving lengthy jail sentences.

Giannella de Marco, a defence lawyer for Fenech, said she was pleased that justice had prevailed.

The jurors, she said, showed they did not believe the murder plot middleman who turned state's evidence, and they suspected somebody else was involved.

“These people saw through who was lying,” she said.

The jury heard that Fenech, the alleged mastermind of the plot, had wanted Caruana Galizia killed because she was about to reveal information about him. She was aged 53 when she died.

Fenech had denied the accusations, and his defence during the trial pointed fingers at his one-time close friend Keith Schembri, former chief of staff of then-prime minister Joseph Muscat and a target of Caruana Galizia's blogs.

Muscat, who was never linked to the murder, stepped down in January 2020 due to the political fallout from the assassination.

Police told the court that Schembri had never been a suspect, and he has denied any role in the murder.