Yorgen Fenech, a 44-year-old Maltese businessman and heir to a property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, went on trial in Valletta on July 1, 2026. He is charged with complicity in voluntary homicide and criminal association with intent to commit murder in the 2017 car bomb assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Caruana Galizia was killed on October 16, 2017, by a powerful bomb placed under the driver’s seat of her car as she drove away from her home in Bidnija, Malta [2, 4]. Prosecutors allege Fenech paid €150,000 to three hitmen to carry out the killing, with former taxi driver Melvin Theuma acting as the middleman who recruited them [2, 3, 4, 6, 5]. The three men who planted the bomb were arrested shortly after the murder; two later pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 40 years each in 2022, while the third received a reduced sentence for testifying [1, 2, 3, 5].
Two other men who supplied the bomb were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025 [1, 3, 5]. Vincent Muscat, another figure linked to the case, secured a pardon in exchange for testimony [1, 2, 4]. Fenech was arrested in late 2019 on a yacht off Malta in what authorities described as an alleged escape attempt [3, 5].
Prosecutor Anthony Vella said Fenech "also financed the legal defence of Alfred and George Degiorgio, through their brother, Mario. Theuma gave him over €400,000 and the police will provide testimony on that." Vella added, "Daphne Caruana Galizia was a very active journalist with a strong public profile and many investigations ongoing... That is what concerns us here." [6]
Caruana Galizia was known for exposing deep-rooted corruption at the highest levels of government and business in Malta. Her murder sparked a political crisis that led to the resignation of then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in 2020, though he was never linked directly to the killing [1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 5]. A 2021 public inquiry found the Maltese state shared responsibility due to a widespread atmosphere of impunity and breakdown of rule of law [2, 5].
The trial jury was sworn in amid temperatures reaching 33C and will live under strict conditions without access to phones or the internet for its duration [4].
Caruana Galizia’s family, including her sons, are closely following the trial. Her son Paul said, "Nine years after my mother’s murder, the man accused of commissioning it stands trial." [1, 7, 5]
The trial is expected to last several weeks with a jury segregated for its full length. Fenech denies the charges against him [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
