The Maltese public prosecutor's office on Wednesday August 18 requested life imprisonment against businessman Yorgen Fenech, suspected of having orchestrated the murder in 2017 of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
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The prosecution formally presented its indictment against Yorgen Fenech, arrested in November 2019 on his yacht off the coast of Malta as he tried to flee, and prosecuted for complicity in murder and criminal conspiracy.
The indictment, which confirms that a trial will be held, requires life imprisonment for the murder charge, and between 20 and 30 years for the criminal conspiracy charge.
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who denounced in her blog Running Commentary the endemic corruption in this Mediterranean archipelago, a former British colony that entered the European Union in 2004, died at the age of 53 in a car bomb attack on October 16, 2017 .
The Maltese State implicated
It was by digging into the Maltese shutter of the resounding Panama Papers that Daphne Caruana Galizia unearthed the links between Yorgen Fenech and senior Maltese politicians. She had notably revealed that a Dubai company, 17 Black, was to pay money to Keith Schembri, at the time the chief of staff of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and Konrad Mizzi, the Minister of Tourism. The quid pro quo for these alleged bribes is not known.
The Daphne Project journalist consortium, which has resumed its investigations, revealed that 17 Black was owned by Yorgen Fenech. And the head of government, accused of having interfered in the affair and of having protected his collaborators, his chief of staff as well as the Minister of Tourism have since resigned. Yorgen Fenech himself has implicated several senior government officials, in particular Keith Schembri, naming him as the “
real sponsor
” of the murder.
Vincent Muscat, suspected of the murder, pleaded guilty in February and received 15 years in prison, the first conviction in this case which had shocked Malta and the rest of the world.
Two other men, George and Alfred Degiorgio, await trial.
In March, Keith Schembri was charged with money laundering and fraud.
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A public inquiry into the journalist's murder concluded in July that the Maltese state was responsible for creating a climate of impunity in the country which allowed the murder, including through the coordination of a harassment campaign. online by staff in the Prime Minister's Office.
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Prime Minister Robert Abela apologized to the Caruana Galizia family after the publication of the findings of this investigation, pledging to implement all of its recommendations.