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Maltese businessman charged with complicity to murder journalist Maltese businessman charged with complicity to murder journalist
(about 1 hour later)
Yorgen Fenech entered not guilty plea to charges relating to killing of Daphne Caruana GaliziaYorgen Fenech entered not guilty plea to charges relating to killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia
One of Malta’s wealthiest men, Yorgen Fenech, was charged in a Valletta court on Saturday with complicity to murder in the car bomb killing of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017. A businessman has been charged with the murder of Malta’s best known investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Fenech pleaded not guilty to the charge and to other charges related to the case. Local tycoon Yorgen Fenech, the 38-year-old head of a gambling and property empire, was arraigned on Saturday evening, and charged with participating in a criminal organisation, complicity in causing an explosion, and complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia.
The probe into the murder of Caruana Galizia, a journalist who investigated and exposed corruption, has developed into a political crisis for the government of prime minister, Joseph Muscat. He has pleaded not guilty. Fenech was not granted bail and his assets have been frozen on request by the police.
Official sources said Muscat was expected to make a statement announcing his resignation later on Saturday or on Sunday. No official statement has been issued. The journalist, who had exposed corruption at the highest levels within the Maltese government, died when an explosive device planted under the driver’s seat of her rental car was detonated on 16 October 2017.
Maltese media had said earlier that Muscat planned to announce his resignation if charges were filed against Fenech. Asked about this before Fenech was charged, a spokesman for the prime minister said that Muscat “has pledged various times he wants to see this case through.” The assassination and subsequent accusations of a cover-up have provoked international condemnation, and pitched Malta into its biggest political and constitutional crisis since the former British colony became an independent country in 1964.
Fenech, 38, was taken to court under a heavy armed police escort almost two years to the day since three men were charged with having set off the bomb that killed the journalist on16 October 2017. Fenech was apprehended at 6.20am on 20 November last week by armed forces while sailing away from Malta aboard his luxury yacht.
The three have pleaded not guilty and are still awaiting trial. Before his arraignment, Fenech had attempted to implicate the Maltese prime minister’s closest political ally, Keith Schembri, as a co-conspirator. Schembri resigned Monday as chief of staff to the prime minister, and was held in police custody for questioning before being released Thursday. He denies all allegations against him.
Fenech is believed by police to havemasterminded the plot. The journalist’s three sons, her sisters, and her widow Peter Caruana Galizia, were present when Fenech was brought to the court house in Valletta, the capital of Malta, at 8pm on Saturday evening.
Fenech had not commented publicly on the accusation until Friday when he spoke to journalists, saying the “truth will come out”. Three men are already awaiting trial for planting the explosive device, but the family have been waiting for two years for those who ordered the killing to be identified and charged.
Fenech was arrested on 20 November, days after another man, Melvin Theuma was arrested in a money laundering case and told police he had been the middleman in the murder plot and offered information in return for a pardon. The penalty for complicity to murder in Malta is a life sentence.
The Maltese government accepted Theuma’s pardon request but later turned down another request for a pardon by Fenech. The indictment states Fenech “promoted, constituted, organised or financed a group with the intention of committing a crime”, and that he “actively participated in the criminal actions of this group, including but not limited to giving information or material means or recruiting new members when he knew that the purpose and general activity of the group had already been established”.
Muscat has been in power since 2013, having won two general elections in a row, the last in 2017. His Labour party is expected to hold a leadership election in January. He is also charged with having “rendered himself complicit with third parties with an explosive substance which created an explosion which caused the death” of Caruana Galizia.
Following the arraignment, the journalist’s family called on Muscat to stand down: “We now expect the prime minister to leave office, and parliament, with immediate effect to allow a free and full investigation into his and Keith Schembri’s role in Daphne’s assassination.”
The prime minister, Joseph Muscat, announced this week he intended to resign, but only once the investigation into the killing was “complete”. Muscat pre-recorded a televised address setting out details of his departure, according to local media, which was expected to be broadcast shortly after the court hearing.