A prominent Maltese businessman is on trial accused of orchestrating the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed when a bomb planted in her car detonated near her home. Yorgen Fenech, a 44-year-old heir to a major property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, faces charges of complicity in Caruana Galizia’s voluntary homicide and association with criminal elements in Malta.
The trial opened yesterday in Valletta, Malta’s capital, nearly seven years after Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist known for her reporting on government corruption and business misconduct, was killed. Fenech pleaded not guilty as proceedings began in a court packed with heightened security and intense public attention.
According to the indictment, Fenech paid €150,000 to three hitmen to carry out the killing. Prosecutors allege that Fenech asked his friend Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver and bookmaker, to arrange the murder, even directing him to contact a gangland figure named George Degiorgio who operated from a warehouse in the docks of Marsa. The proposed motivation was to prevent Caruana Galizia from publishing a story involving Fenech’s uncle.
The court heard that the plot was hatched in April 2017 and briefly put on hold after a general election in June, which returned the ruling Labour administration to power. The jury was told Fenech urged Theuma to proceed after the election, and the bomb—contained inside a children’s shoebox and placed under the driver’s seat—was remotely detonated by Degiorgio via a text message sent while he was on a boat in Grand Harbour.
Caruana Galizia’s son, Matthew, was the first to arrive at the scene on October 16, 2017, discovering his mother’s burning car off the road near her home in the village of Bidnija. She was 53 years old.
Fenech is the last of seven men accused in connection with the murder to stand trial. Five others have already been convicted, and one received a presidential pardon in exchange for testimony. Among those sentenced, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, accused bomb suppliers, were given life sentences in June 2025. The Degiorgio brothers, George and Alfred, and their accomplice Vincent Muscat have also been convicted; Muscat received a reduced sentence of 15 years and a pardon after cooperating with authorities. Theuma, arrested in 2019, is now under witness protection.
The trial has faced challenges, including a laborious jury selection process amid worries over intense media coverage and summer heat. Maltese law requires the jury to be segregated throughout the trial, staying in a hotel without access to digital devices.
Prosecutors rely heavily on a series of covert recordings Theuma made of his conversations with Fenech, though Fenech’s defense team disputes Theuma’s credibility, describing his testimony as containing “blatant lies.” The attorney general has requested a life sentence for homicide and 20 to 30 years for criminal association if Fenech is convicted. The case remains a focal point within Malta and beyond, highlighting enduring concerns over press freedom and rule of law in the country.