Yorgen Fenech, a prominent Maltese businessman, was indicted in 2021 on charges of complicity and criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors accused him of being the mastermind of the slaying and of having ordered and paid for it.<\/p>\n
He pleaded not guilty and the jury on Wednesday, in an 8-1 vote, found him not guilty on both counts. Fenech was greeted with jeers outside the courtroom and the opposition Nationalist Party organized a demonstration late Wednesday to demand justice.<\/p>\n
Fenech was the last of a half-dozen people charged in the plot<\/a> to be prosecuted. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Flowers and a candle lie in front of a portrait of slain investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia during a vigil outside the law courts in Valletta, Malta, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo\/Jonathan Borg, File)<\/p>\n Flowers and a candle lie in front of a portrait of slain investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia during a vigil outside the law courts in Valletta, Malta, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo\/Jonathan Borg, File)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n A woman targeted for her anti-corruption investigations<\/p>\n Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed<\/a> on Oct. 16, 2017, by a car bomb that was detonated while she was driving near her home.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n At the time of her death, she was facing more than 40 libel suits.<\/p>\n An independent inquiry into the killing published in 2021 concluded that the Maltese state \u201chas to bear responsibility\u201d for the assassination due to a culture of impunity that emanated from the highest levels of government.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An ambulance and police vehicles are parked along the road where a car bomb exploded killing investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, in the town of Mosta, Malta, Oct. 16, 2017. (AP Photo\/Rene Rossignaud, File)<\/p>\n An ambulance and police vehicles are parked along the road where a car bomb exploded killing investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, in the town of Mosta, Malta, Oct. 16, 2017. (AP Photo\/Rene Rossignaud, File)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The case forces a prime minister to resign<\/p>\n Fenech was involved in a consortium that won a controversial contract with the Maltese government to build a power station.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s resignation. <\/p>\n 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 away.<\/p>\n One of his lawyers, Gianella De Marco, expressed satisfaction with the verdict.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are happy that justice has prevailed,\u201d she told reporters. She said the outcome showed that the jury didn\u2019t believe a key prosecution witness who was granted a presidential pardon in exchange for his testimony.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Sign up for Morning Wire:<\/strong> Caruana Galizia\u2019s children were at the forefront in demanding accountability and justice over her death. Her sons were in the courtroom when the verdict was read out but left without commenting to reporters. <\/p>\n In a statement later posted to Facebook, the family said the verdict denied Caruana Galizia the \u201cjustice she deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNine years after Daphne\u2019s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed. Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again,\u201d the statement said. \u201cOur country failed to protect Daphne. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.\u201d <\/p>\n The opposition Nationalist Party organized a silent march late Wednesday, saying in a statement that it respected the verdict but demanding accountability over who ordered her assassination.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter years of investigations, inquiries and judicial proceedings, justice has still not reached where it needed to reach \u2013 neither for Daphne\u2019s family nor for our country,\u201d the party said in a statement.<\/p>\n The government, for its part, said it had always provided the needed support and resources for the investigation and remained committed to seeing justice through. It noted in a statement that a number of people had already been sentenced to lengthy prison terms over the case.<\/p>\n No cameras were allowed in the courtroom, as is typical in Maltese criminal trials.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech leaves court after being questioned in the 2017 bomb blast that killed investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as she drove near her home, Nov. 29, 2019, in Valletta, Malta. (AP Photo, File)<\/p>\n Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech leaves court after being questioned in the 2017 bomb blast that killed investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as she drove near her home, Nov. 29, 2019, in Valletta, Malta. (AP Photo, File)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n A half-dozen other people implicated<\/p>\n In 2022, George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred Degiorgio both pleaded guilty to carrying out the slaying. They were each sentenced to 40 years<\/a> in prison.<\/p>\n![\"Flowers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788397759_333_.jpeg\")
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