The assassination that shocked Europe: Casino tycoon acquitted of murdering journalist in car bomb

Hundreds of people demonstrated today (Thursday) in Valletta, the capital of Malta, following the dramatic court decision yesterday to acquit Yorgen Fenech, one of the country's wealthiest men, of ordering the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, which shocked the island nation in 2017 and resonated throughout the European Union.

Caruana Galizia was active in the field of anti-corruption, and because of her work, some called her the 'one-woman WikiLeaks.' She exposed corruption at the highest levels of the country and shed light on dubious ties between the business elite and the political elite in Malta. Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb explosion outside her home in October 2017, when she was 53, and her murder placed Malta, the smallest country among EU members, at the center of international attention due to alleged failures in its rule of law.

The murder also caused a political crisis at the time, and then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was forced to resign in January 2020 following massive protests against what was perceived as his attempts to protect his friends and allies from the investigation. The culture of cover-up and quid pro quo that the murder exposed led to calls to reform Malta's judicial and legal systems and to increase protection for journalists. A public inquiry commission determined in July 2021 that the state must 'take responsibility' for the murder due to the 'culture of impunity' that the government had fostered.

In the years following the murder, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio were convicted of carrying out the act and sent to 40 years in prison, and last year two men who provided them with the bomb, Jamie Vella and Robert Agius, were sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the murder. Another person, Vincent Muscat, had confessed to his part in the murder even earlier and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and a sixth person involved, taxi driver Melvin Theuma, who admitted to acting as a mediator, received a presidential pardon in 2019 in exchange for providing testimony. Fenech therefore remained the last person who had not paid for the acts attributed to him.

The 44-year-old Fenech, heir to a real estate empire that controls hotels, casinos, and energy companies, was arrested on a yacht he owned in 2019 while trying to flee Malta, and the prosecution charged him with ordering the assassination of the journalist, with his motive, according to them, being Galizia's intention to publish an incriminating article about his uncle. He denied the charges against him, and his defense line was that the murder was actually planned and ordered by his former close friend Keith Schembri, who was at the time the Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and who had become a target of criticism in Caruana Galizia's blog. The police rejected this claim, and Schembri himself, of course, vehemently denied any involvement.

Yesterday, many in Maltese society were stunned when a jury decided by a majority of 8 to 1 to acquit him of a charge of complicity in murder and a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder. Upon the announcement of the acquittal, Fenech's family members burst into cheers, while Caruana Galizia's relatives wept in the courtroom. As he left the court, Fenech was met with shouts of 'Murderer!'

It should be noted that the prosecution in the trial of the tycoon Fenech, whose wealth and that of his family is estimated at hundreds of millions of euros, will not be able to appeal the verdict, except in exceptional circumstances concerning legal issues. The verdict sparked the anger of Caruana Galizia's family and civil society in Malta, and also drew criticism from European organizations working for press freedom. The organization 'Reporters Without Borders' stated that it is 'shocked to its core' by the acquittal, and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom stated that the verdict sends a 'worrying message.'

Roberta Metsola, a Maltese politician who currently serves as President of the European Parliament, pledged to continue the fight for justice, and in a post addressing 'dear Daphne,' she wrote: 'When they assassinated you in broad daylight outside your family home, we promised that we would not let them sweep it under the rug. That promise remains in force today. We will not give up and we will not surrender.'

In a statement released by Caruana Galizia's family on Facebook shortly after the verdict was delivered, they said that the decision denied their loved one the justice she deserves: 'Today should have been Daphne's day. Her dreams and our dreams were shattered when she was murdered outside the family home, at just 53 years old. It is time for all those who enabled the act, facilitated its execution, or protected her killers to be held accountable. Nine years after the brutal assassination of Daphne, the institutional failures that allowed her murder remain unanswered and uncorrected. Sustainable justice means that no person will ever have to face the same risks again. Our state failed to protect Daphne. Its duty to her is to prevent the loss of more lives.'

The current Prime Minister of Malta, Robert Abela, who returned to power in May of this year, did not comment directly on the acquittal, but in a statement released by his government shortly after the verdict, it called for restraint: 'At this sensitive moment, the government calls for the exercise of judgment in public statements that could cause more harm than good,' the statement said.

During her years as an investigative journalist, Caruana Galizia frequently wrote about suspicions of corruption in government and business circles in Malta, and her investigations focused on people in the inner circle of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. She accused them, among other things, of holding foreign companies in tax havens that were exposed in the 'Panama Papers' leak, a database of confidential documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm that revealed the structure of foreign companies. However, she also aimed her arrows at the opposition and senior figures in the business world in Malta. At the time of her death, there were more than 40 libel lawsuits against her.