Businessman on trial in Malta over prominent journalist’s murder 

A businessman arrested seven years ago for the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has gone on trial in Malta.

Yorgen Fenech, 44, was arrested on a yacht off Malta in 2019, in what prosecutors said was an escape bid.

Fenech is charged with orchestrating the assassination of then 53-year-old Caruana Galizia, one of Malta’s most prominent journalists.

At the time of her killing, the journalist was investigating corruption and kickback allegations against an offshore company called “17 Black”.

Following the murder, it was revealed that Fenech was the owner of 17 Black.

“Nine years after my mother’s murder, the man accused of commissioning it stands trial,” the journalist’s son, Paul Caruana Galizia, wrote on social media on Wednesday.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed when a bomb placed in her car blew up as she drove away from her home on the small Mediterranean island.

Prosecutors allege that Fenech commissioned a former taxi driver, Melvin Theuma, to find someone to carry out the murder.

Theuma eventually ‌confessed to hiring three men to carry out the bombing, telling the authorities that he received $170,000 from Fenech as payment.

Three men who carried out the bombing were arrested weeks after the murder and ⁠pleaded guilty at the start of their trial.

Two men who supplied the bomb were given life sentences in 2025, while the third accused was given a reduced sentence in return for information.

“This historic trial must expose the truth about the despicable criminal plot and the deadly chain of events that led to the execution of a journalist within the European Union,” said media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders in a statement at the start of Fenech’s trial.

The killing led to the resignation of then-premier Joseph Muscat in 2020 following mass protests over his government’s handling of the investigation.

A public inquiry published in 2021 concluded the state “shouldered responsibility” for the murder due to the “atmosphere of impunity” the government had created.

Fenech has denied the charges against him. His trial is expected to last for several weeks.