Maltese jury acquits Yorgen Fenech Sept 2

A Maltese jury has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of complicity in the 2017 car bomb murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The verdict, delivered on Wednesday evening, September 2, 2026, concluded the last criminal prosecution stemming from the assassination that triggered a political crisis and placed Malta's rule of law under intense scrutiny. Jurors returned not guilty findings on both counts Fenech faced: complicity in voluntary homicide and association with the intention to commit a crime. The decision followed approximately eight hours of deliberation and was reached by an eight-to-one vote. Prosecutors had accused Fenech, an heir to a property empire, of ordering and paying for the murder because Caruana Galizia was reportedly on the verge of publishing compromising information about him. Fenech maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, which have been described as the longest-running murder trial in Maltese history. Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed on October 16, 2017, when a bomb detonated in her car near her home in Bidnija, northern Malta.