A Maltese jury has cleared businessman Yorgen Fenech of ordering the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, ending the last criminal prosecution over a killing that brought down a government and put the island’s rule of law under sustained EU scrutiny.
Jurors returned not-guilty findings on both counts, complicity in murder and the lesser charge of criminal association, by eight votes to one on September 2 after about eight hours of deliberation, Reuters reported. The trial in Valletta had run for just under two months.
Fenech, the heir to a property empire that takes in hotels and casinos, had denied the charges and could have faced life imprisonment.
Prosecutors alleged that he wanted the journalist dead because she was about to publish material concerning him. His defence pointed instead to Keith Schembri, former chief of staff to then prime minister Joseph Muscat, who has denied any role and whom police told the court had never been a suspect.
Prosecutors cannot appeal against the verdict except in exceptional circumstances involving points of law, according to Reuters.
Caruana Galizia died at 53 when a bomb planted in her car was detonated near her home in Bidnija, northern Malta, on October 16, 2017. She had reported extensively on suspected corruption around Muscat’s inner circle, drawing on the Panama Papers leak.
Her family said the outcome was “denying her the justice she deserves” and that the institutional failures behind the murder remained unaddressed. Her son Matthew called the jurors’ finding a “terrible decision”.
Reporters Without Borders said it was “beyond outraged”. The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom said the verdict sent a disturbing message to those who attack and kill journalists.
The Maltese Government took note of the outcome and appealed for prudence in public comment, warning that such comment could do more harm than good. Prime Minister Robert Abela, returned to office in the general election of May 30, made no direct comment.
Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg led a silent demonstration outside Abela’s office and said he would ask the Speaker to recall parliament, which is not due to sit again until October 5.
Five men are serving sentences over the killing. Vincent Muscat was jailed for 15 years in 2021, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio were given 40 years each in 2022, and Robert Agius and Jamie Vella received life terms in June 2025.
The murder prompted repeated European Parliament resolutions on media freedom in Malta and gave its name to the EU’s anti-SLAPP directive, known as “Daphne’s Law”, a measure lawyers and press freedom campaigners criticised as too weak while it was being drafted.
