- Rights groups condemn acquittal in journalist murder case
Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in 2017. Another of Caruana Galizia’s nieces, Amy Mallia, who was just 15 when her aunt was killed, said Fenech’s acquittal had brought back the emotions she experienced after her aunt’s death. The protest was organised by civil society groups two weeks after the man accused of masterminding the murder was cleared by a jury in a decision that shocked many people in the European Union’s smallest nation. Three men who planted the bomb and two men who produced it are serving lengthy jail sentences, but the suspected mastermind, business mogul Yorgen Fenech, was acquitted of complicity in murder and criminal association following a two-month trial. Manuel Delia, a leader of the rule-of-law group Repubblika, which helped organise the mass protest, called for effective anti-mafia legislation and government action to protect journalists and ensure that national institutions were free of political or business pressure.
The verdict appalled the victim’s family, and drew criticism from press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, which said it was “beyond outraged” by the decision. Caruana Galizia’s father Michael Vella, in a message read by one of her nieces, told the crowd that their cause extended beyond securing accountability for his daughter’s death.
