Sept 2 (Reuters) – Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech was cleared on Wednesday of masterminding the car bomb murder of prominent anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia nine years ago.
Following is a timeline of a killing that shocked Europe, triggered a political crisis in Malta and drew international scrutiny of the country’s police and judiciary.
October 16, 2017:
Caruana Galizia is killed when a bomb placed under the driver’s seat of her Peugeot 108 blows up as she sets off from her home in Bidnija in the north of Malta. The device is detonated by remote control from an offshore yacht on the signal of a man watching the site, a court later heard.
December 5, 2017:
Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat are charged with murder.
November 20, 2019:
Fenech is detained by armed forces as he tries to leave the Mediterranean island before dawn aboard his luxury yacht.
November 26, 2019:
Maltese government chief of staff Keith Schembri resigns amid mounting pressure as police investigate the murder and scrutiny of his ties to Fenech. Schembri has denied any role in the murder and police said during Fenech’s current trial that he had never been a suspect.
December 1, 2019:
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announces that he plans to quit following street protests and allegations of corruption made by activists and the opposition who said he had protected people linked to the murder. Muscat, no relation to Vincent Muscat, denies wrongdoing.
December 4, 2019:
Self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma gives evidence after having received immunity from prosecution in exchange for information and testimony about the murder plot. Former taxi driver Theuma gives a detailed account of how Fenech contacted him in 2017 to organise the hit, providing €150,000 for the contract.
January 13, 2020:
Prime Minister Muscat formally steps down.
February 23, 2021:
Vincent Muscat pleads guilty and is given a reduced 15-year sentence in return for agreeing to give information on what he knows about the case.
October 14, 2022:
The Degiorgio brothers are each sentenced to 40 years in prison after admitting to the murder on the first day of their trial.
They had initially submitted “not guilty” pleas when the case opened earlier in the day, but later agreed to acknowledge guilt in exchange for avoiding a life sentence.
June 10, 2025:
Robert Agius and Jamie Vella are jailed for life by a Maltese judge for having supplied the bomb. The two had been convicted the previous week when jurors returned an 8-1 verdict that they supplied the explosive material in exchange for money. The two defendants pleaded not guilty.
July 1, 2026:
Fenech goes on trial on charges of complicity in murder and criminal association.
(Writing by Keith WeirEditing by Ros Russell)
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