Maltese businessman Fenech acquitted on September 2 of orchestrating journalist's killing

Yorgen Fenech, 44, was acquitted on September 2 by jury of complicity in the October 2017 car-bomb murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was 53. Per the BBC, Fenech was cleared of both counts by an 8-1 margin after eight hours of deliberation by the jury. If found guilty, Fenech could have faced life in prison, according to Al Jazeera. Fenech was the last of a half-dozen people charged in the plot to be prosecuted, per NPR.

Caruana Galizia was killed on October 16, 2017, by a car bomb that was detonated while she was driving near her home, according to NPR. The BBC reports that Caruana Galizia was deeply involved in the 2016 Panama Papers investigation, which exposed offshore structures and triggered corruption allegations against top government officials in Malta.

Per NPR, at the time of her death, Caruana Galizia was facing more than 40 libel suits. An independent inquiry into the killing published in 2021 concluded that the Maltese state "has to bear responsibility" for the assassination due to a culture of impunity that emanated from the highest levels of government, according to NPR. That same inquiry found, per Al Jazeera, that officials in Malta had failed to protect Caruana Galizia from threats to her life before her death.

Fenech was indicted in 2021 on charges of complicity and criminal conspiracy, per NPR. According to NPR, prosecutors accused Fenech of being the mastermind of the slaying and of having ordered and paid for it. During the trial, per the BBC, the jury heard that Fenech had wanted the journalist killed because she was about to reveal information about him.

Fenech denied the accusations. Per the BBC, during the trial Fenech deflected blame towards Keith Schembri, former chief of staff of then-prime minister Joseph Muscat. However, the BBC reports that police told the court that Schembri had never been a suspect, and he has denied any role in the murder. The BBC also notes that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who was never linked to the murder, stepped down in January 2020 due to the political fallout from the assassination.

According to NPR, Fenech was involved in a consortium that won a controversial contract with the Maltese government to build a power station. Fenech's arrest in 2019, as he was sailing away from Malta on his yacht, sparked a series of mass protests in the country that culminated with Muscat's resignation, per NPR.

Other individuals charged in connection with the killing have received convictions and sentences. The BBC reports that in 2022, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio were jailed for 40 years over the killing of Caruana Galizia. NPR reports that George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred Degiorgio both pleaded guilty to carrying out the slaying and were each sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2022. Per NPR, in 2025, Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of complicity in the murder and accused of supplying the bomb. The BBC reports that those two men were jailed for life by a Maltese judge for having supplied the bomb.

Vincent Muscat pleaded guilty in 2021 for his role in the slaying and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, per NPR. Melvin Theuma, a self-confessed middleman and taxi driver, was granted a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for testimony, according to NPR.