Daphne Caruana Galizia's family lost a measure of closure after a Maltese jury cleared Yorgen Fenech of complicity in her 2017 assassination.
The 44-year-old businessman was acquitted of complicity and of criminal association to commit murder, after the jury returned an 8-1 verdict following eight hours of deliberation. Members of Fenech's family reacted with celebration in the Valletta courtroom, while Caruana Galizia's relatives were visibly distraught.
Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017. She was 53 and had won international attention for reporting on corruption, money laundering and organised crime on her blog Running Commentary, including work connected to the 2016 Panama Papers.
Two brothers, George and Alfred Degiorgio, were jailed for 40 years in 2022 for the murder. Separately, in 2025 Robert Agius and Jamie Vella received life sentences for supplying the bomb.
During his trial Fenech denied the allegations and shifted blame toward Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff to then-prime minister Joseph Muscat. Police told the court Schembri had never been a suspect and Schembri has denied any role. Muscat, who was never linked to the murder, resigned in January 2020 amid the political fallout from the case.
In a statement, Caruana Galizia's family emphasised what they see as continuing institutional failure. "Nine years after Daphne's brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed," they said. "Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again. Our country failed to protect Daphne's life. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost."
The acquittal resolves the criminal charges that were brought against Fenech in this trial, but it leaves lingering questions about wider accountability and about the institutional reforms Caruana Galizia's supporters have sought since her death. Public unease over corruption and press freedom that fuelled outrage after the killing is likely to persist as Malta reckons with the case's legal and political fallout.
