Verdict: 8-1 – Yorgen Fenech not guilty

Updated with statement by the Daphne Caruana Galizia family

Yorgen Fenech has been found not guilty of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and of criminal association.

The nine-member jury returned an 8-1 not guilty verdict on both charges, bringing one of Malta’s most closely followed criminal trials to a dramatic conclusion.

Fenech had denied ordering the October 2017 car bomb assassination.

The jurors began deliberating shortly after 11 am on Wednesday, after Judge Edwina Grima concluded her final address and instructed them on how to assess the extensive evidence presented by the prosecution and defence.

“I pray to God to help you in your decision,” the judge told them before they left the courtroom.

A valid verdict required the support of at least six jurors. Judge Grima explained that a six-to-three majority would be sufficient, while a five-to-four decision would not be legally valid.

Fenech took the relatively unusual step of testifying in his own defence, spending four days on the witness stand to present his account of the events surrounding the assassination.

He admitted becoming involved in conversations about the murder but insisted that he had neither commissioned nor paid for it.

Instead, he accused former prime ministerial chief of staff Keith Schembri of masterminding the plot. Fenech claimed that he paid self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma €50,000 to stop the murder and later gave him approximately €400,000.

He portrayed himself as a victim of his loyalty to Schembri, Theuma’s alleged blackmail and his cocaine addiction.

Prosecutors rejected that narrative, pointing to what they described as inconsistencies in Fenech’s testimony and highlighting his close relationships with powerful government figures.

Before sending the jurors to deliberate, Judge Grima warned them against being distracted by references to third parties, including Schembri, which she described as forming part of Fenech’s defence.

“You are the judges of fact,” she told them, and must decide the case solely on the evidence.

Family statement

Yorgen Fenech has been acquitted of Daphne’s brutal assassination, nine years after she was killed, denying her the justice she deserves. We remain grateful to everyone who worked to bring Fenech to justice, particularly our hardworking lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi, the police, prosecution, judiciary, the press, and civil society in Malta and abroad.

During Fenech’s months-long trial we have heard many people speak but we will never see or hear Daphne again. Her dreams and ours were shattered when she was killed outside her family home, aged just 53. Today should have belonged to Daphne. Accountability is now overdue for all those who enabled, facilitated or protected her murderers.

Had Daphne not been killed, we believe she would have exposed corrupt links between Yorgen Fenech, the then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and PM’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, centred on Fenech’s company, 17 Black. Fenech himself considered ElectroGas to be “one big mistake” and feared its collapse because it would have ruined him. We believe the motive for her murder was to stop her investigating Fenech’s once secret company, 17 Black, and its financial transactions. Documents show that the €5,000 per day due to Mizzi’s and Schembri’s once-secret Panama companies was expected to be paid via Fenech’s 17 Black, and his Chinese associate’s company, Macbridge.

Justice must now be served for the corruption that made Daphne’s murder possible. Yorgen Fenech and fellow ElectroGas director Paul Apap Bologna, Mizzi, Schembri, and others are already charged with bribery and corruption in connection with the ElectroGas project. Separately, Fenech is also charged with bribing the police inspector who was responsible for the Economic Crimes Unit and for the investigation into Fenech’s company, 17 Black. Other prosecutions may follow.

Nine years after Daphne’s 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. Our country failed to protect Daphne. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”