San Francisco Frontiers - Outrage mounts in Malta after acquittal over journalist's murder

The verdict on Daphne Caruana Galizia's car-bomb killing in 2017 sparked outrage from Maltese civil society groups and international media freedom organisations.

The opposition Nationalist Party, which organised the demonstration late on Wednesday, has said lawmakers should be called back from their summer break for a special session of the legislature to discuss the case.

Hours earlier, tycoon Yorgen Fenech walked out of court after the verdict as a free man to shouts of "Assassin!" from some protesters.

Five people have been convicted so far in relation to the murder for supplying the explosives and carrying out the killing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement on Thursday said it would continue to "seek accountability for all those involved in her murder".

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom said the verdict sent a "disturbing message", while Reporters Without Borders (RSF), another media watchdog, said it was "beyond outraged".

"The verdict means that almost nine years since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese authorities have failed to identify and convict the mastermind," RSF said in a statement.

"Full justice must be served and Maltese authorities must implement the long overdue measures protecting journalists and media freedom."

The government on Wednesday said it "took note" of the verdict and appealed for "prudence in public comments" on the case.

- 'Institutional failures' -

Dubbed a "one-woman WikiLeaks", Caruana Galizia exposed corruption at the highest level in the country, shining a spotlight on murky links between Malta's business and political elites.

Her slaying put Malta, the European Union's smallest member state, in the spotlight over its apparent rule-of-law failings.

The killing also led to a political crisis, and the resignation of then-premier Joseph Muscat in January 2020 after widespread anger and mass protests over his perceived efforts to protect friends and allies from the investigation.

A two-year public inquiry published in July 2021 concluded that the state should "shoulder responsibility" for the murder due to the "atmosphere of impunity" the government had created.

Fenech, a tycoon whose business interests spanned the energy and tourism sectors, was arrested on his yacht in 2019 as he tried to sail out of Malta after a middleman in the murder was offered a pardon to identify those involved.

Prosecutors had accused Fenech of ordering the journalist to be killed because she was on the brink of publishing a compromising article about his uncle.

Caruana Galizia was 53 when she died and left behind a husband and three sons.

In June 2025, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were convicted of supplying the bomb that killed her and sentenced to life in prison.

The three men who carried out the murder -- brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio together with Vince Muscat -- are serving prison sentences after being found guilty of their role.

"Accountability is now overdue for all those who enabled, facilitated, or protected her murderers," her family said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Nine years after Daphne's brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed."

J.Martinez--SFF