Malta Murder Trial Shocker: Hitmen Paid €150,000 for Journalist's Assassination

Maltese prosecutors have initiated their case against tycoon Yorgen Fenech, who stands accused of orchestrating the 2017 assassination of prominent investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The trial, which commenced on Wednesday after numerous procedural delays and Fenech's attempted escape by yacht in 2019, seeks to prove his alleged role in a crime that profoundly impacted the island nation and led to the downfall of a previous government. Fenech, however, denies all charges.

According to the indictment, as reported by the Times of Malta, the 44-year-old Fenech allegedly tasked an acquaintance with finding individuals capable of eliminating the journalist and blogger. Initially, Fenech reportedly expressed concerns that Caruana Galizia would publish damaging revelations about his uncle. This acquaintance subsequently contacted brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio. A price of €150,000 was agreed upon, which the acquaintance claims was provided in cash by Fenech in a brown envelope, according to an account from Amphora Media, the journalism platform of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.

The Degiorgio brothers, who were each sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2022, spent the summer of 2017 meticulously planning the journalist's murder with the aid of an accomplice. This accomplice, who received a 15-year prison sentence in 2021, revealed that the trio initially considered shooting Caruana Galizia at her home with sniper rifles. However, they ultimately decided on a car bomb. Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, a married mother of three sons, was tragically killed on October 16, 2017, near her home. The killers used a coded text message to remotely detonate the explosive device, which had been concealed under the driver’s seat of her Peugeot 108 the previous night.

Yorgen Fenech, who secured a multimillion-euro contract with the Maltese state in 2013 for the construction of a gas-fired power plant, was apprehended in 2019 while attempting to flee Malta aboard his yacht. Caruana Galizia’s investigative work had exposed extensive corruption at the highest levels of the country, shedding light on murky connections between Malta's business and political elites. Her death, which led to her being described as a