Maltese businessman paid hitmen €150,000 to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia, jury hears

Yorgen Fenech, heir to property empire, on trial for alleged involvement in murder of journalist, which he denies.

One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen plotted to kill the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, paying €150,000 to three hitmen to carry out the murder, a jury has heard. Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, entered a plea of not guilty as his trial began on Wednesday morning at the courts of justice in Malta’s capital, Valletta. Fenech has been indicted on two counts: complicity in the voluntary homicide of Caruana Galizia and association with the intention of committing a crime. He is the last of seven individuals accused of involvement in the 2017 killing to face trial, with five already convicted and one secured a pardon in exchange for state testimony.

The jury heard how the targeted plot was hatched in April 2017 when Fenech allegedly contacted his friend Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver and bookmaker, instructing him to find someone to assassinate Caruana Galizia. The indictment claims Fenech initially wanted the journalist killed because she was about to publish an article regarding his uncle, and later pressed for the plan to proceed because she was about to expose Fenech himself. Theuma subsequently established contact with gangland figures George and Alfred Degiorgio, agreeing to a €150,000 fee. On 16 October 2017, a powerful bomb concealed inside a children’s shoebox was placed beneath the driver’s seat of Caruana Galizia’s vehicle and detonated remotely via text message as she drove away from her home in Bidnija, killing the 53 year old blogger and columnist.

The trial opened amidst extreme public interest and severe weather conditions, with the opposing legal parties taking five hours to finalise the selection of the jury, who will remain entirely segregated and stripped of electronic devices for the duration of the proceedings. The prosecution is heavily relying on recorded conversations covertly captured by Theuma prior to his 2019 arrest, though Fenech’s defence team has fiercely challenged these recordings, branding the testimony as blatant lies. The attorney general has demanded a life sentence for the homicide charge alongside an additional 20 to 30 years for criminal association. The murder previously triggered a massive political crisis that forced the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in 2019, whilst prior judicial proceedings have already seen the hitmen jailed and the bomb suppliers sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2025.