Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech on trial for murder

The trial of Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, accused of orchestrating the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, began on Wednesday in Valletta. Fenech, 44, pleaded not guilty to charges of complicity in the journalist's voluntary homicide and criminal association. The case, which triggered a political crisis in Malta, is the culmination of a nine-year investigation.

Caruana Galizia, a 53-year-old blogger and columnist known for exposing corruption, was killed on October 16, 2017, when a bomb placed under the driver's seat of her car detonated as she drove from her home in Bidnija. Prosecutors allege Fenech commissioned the killing because the journalist was investigating his business dealings, including his ownership of an offshore company called 17 Black.

According to the indictment read in court, Fenech allegedly enlisted taxi driver Melvin Theuma in April 2017 to find someone to carry out the murder. Theuma, who was granted a pardon for his testimony, told authorities Fenech paid 150,000 euros for the assassination. Theuma then contacted brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, who, along with an accomplice, Vincent Muscat, carried out the bombing...