A Maltese jury found Yorgen Fenech not guilty on Wednesday of complicity and criminal conspiracy in the 2017 car-bomb killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Prosecutors had accused the businessman of masterminding, ordering and paying for the assassination; indicted in 2021, he pleaded not guilty and was the last of six charged suspects to be tried.
Caruana Galizia’s family said the verdict denied her “the justice she deserves,” arguing that the institutional failures behind her murder remain unreformed nine years after the attack.
The case had already shaken Malta: Fenech’s 2019 arrest triggered mass protests that led Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to resign, and a 2021 public inquiry said the state bore responsibility because of a culture of impunity.
Five others have been convicted or sentenced in the plot, including two hitmen who got 40 years each, two men jailed for life for supplying the bomb, and one accomplice sentenced to 15 years.
With Fenech acquitted and hitmen jailed, who is the real mastermind behind Daphne Caruana Galizia's tragic assassination?
Will the explosive corruption secrets of 17 Black remain buried forever following this shocking Maltese jury verdict?
How did alleged police leaks and a culture of impunity influence the acquittal in Malta's most notorious murder trial?
Malta’s Justice on Trial: The 2026 Acquittal in the Daphne Caruana Galizia Murder, Systemic Failures, and the Unfinished Fight Against Corruption
Overview
The 2017 assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia shook Malta, exposing deep corruption and triggering a political crisis that led to the resignation of top officials. Despite a 2021 public inquiry blaming the state for fostering impunity, the government failed to enact reforms, and European reports found no progress in protecting journalists. In 2026, Yorgen Fenech was acquitted, a verdict condemned by the victim’s family and expected to be appealed. The trial highlighted investigative failures and left the question of who masterminded the murder unresolved, deepening public distrust and leaving Malta’s rule of law and press freedom in crisis.