VALLETA, Malta — A jury in Malta on Wednesday acquitted the Maltese businessman accused of being the mastermind of the 2017 car bomb killing of crusading investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
His 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. Fenech was involved in a consortium that won a controversial contract with the Maltese government to build a power station.
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. Caruana Galizia’s killing shocked Europe, led to protests that toppled a prime minister and exposed a culture of impunity on the Mediterranean island nation, the European Union’s smallest. She had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta, with investigative reports targeting people in then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s inner circle whom she accused of having offshore companies in tax havens disclosed in the Panama Papers leak. She also targeted the opposition and business leaders in Malta. After he was acquitted of all charges Wednesday, he walked out of the Valletta courtroom to a chaotic scene outside, with hecklers yelling as he walked into a waiting car. He made no comment. Caruana Galizia’s children were at the forefront in demanding accountability and justice for her death. Her sons were in the courtroom when the verdict was read out but left without commenting.
It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”
Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again,” the statement said. “Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed. “Our country failed to protect Daphne.
