Nine years after Maltese journalist’s murder, businessman goes on trial

Yorgen Fenech is alleged to have paid €150,000 to have Daphne Caruana Galizia killed in a car bombing in 2017

- Ceri Thomas

It is nearly nine years since the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a bomb in a shoebox placed under the seat of her car.

Last week, the last of the men alleged to be implicated in her killing went on trial. Five people have already been jailed for their part in the plot - two for life, two for 40 years each, another for 15 years - but Caruana Galizia’s sister Corinne told The Observer: “It was very clear to the family from the start that they were working for someone else.” In court last week the prosecution’s case was that they were working for Yorgen Fenech, the businessman who, it is alleged, ordered and paid €150,000 for the killing.

Fenech was arrested in 2019 on a yacht bound for Italy after allegedly being tipped off that the police were about to move against him. His legal team has successfully dragged out proceedings, to the frustration of Caruana Galizia’s family, but the years have not diminished the memory of the shock that the killing caused far beyond Malta.