Thousands Protest In Malta As Alleged Mastermind Walks Free

Outrage spilled onto the streets of the Maltese capital on Wednesday evening as demonstrators gathered at the heart of Valletta, shifting from vigils to protests to demand political accountability following the acquittal of the alleged mastermind behind the 2017 assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

For 107 consecutive months - on the 16th of every month since Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb outside her home - civil society groups held silent vigils. But the Sept. 2 acquittal of Yorgen Fenech, a prominent businessman accused of orchestrating and financing the plot, transformed that quiet grief into open defiance.

Chanting “Mafia! Mafia!” and “Injustice!”, thousands of protesters marched from the Parliament building to a memorial standing directly opposite Malta’s Law Courts to lay flowers and light candles before Caruana Galizia’s portrait. Banners carried by the crowd called for the protection of journalists and democracy, declaring: “The Trial Has Ended. Our Work Has Not” and “Impunity Ends Here.”

“Justice has not been served,” Rebecca Gauci, a protester told OCCRP. “The people who carried out the murder are still running free, and something has to happen.”

She added that justice was essential both for the Caruana Galizia family, who have “been through hell and back,” and for the country as a whole.

“This can impact anyone… I’m here because this should concern everyone in Malta – this concerns us all and we should all be angry at this.”

Organized by the civil rights groups Repubblika and Occupy Justice, the demonstration was framed as a direct challenge to the nation's political establishment.

“We will not accept that the search for the full truth ends here,” the groups said in a joint statement, asserting that leaders “have failed Malta for far too long.”

Pia Zammit, a founder of Occupy Justice, urged authorities to pass “effective laws against the mafia” and follow the financial trail to reclaim illicit funds for the public. “It’s not calling out the mafia that gives Malta a bad reputation - it’s the mafia that ruins Malta’s reputation,” Zammit told the crowd.

Fenech, 44, the former chief executive of the Tumas Group, a major Maltese business conglomerate and investment company operating primarily in real estate, hospitality, and energy, was cleared of complicity and criminal association after a nine-member jury deliberated for eight hours following a landmark 55-day trial. The jury voted eight to one on both charges to acquit him.

Prosecutor Anthony Vella, whose team is expected to appeal the verdict, had argued that Fenech paid 150,000 euro ($170,000) to a middleman to engage hitmen and subsequently funneled leaked police intelligence to the killers. The trial laid bare the ties between Fenech and Malta’s governing elite, revealing WhatsApp exchanges with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, regulatory chiefs, and the deputy police commissioner who initially led the murder investigation.

While five men have been convicted for their roles in the bombing - including hitmen serving up to 40 years and two men sentenced to life for supplying military-grade explosives - Fenech’s acquittal leaves the plot without a convicted mastermind, fueling fears among activists that political complicity will go unpunished.

Manuel Delia, a co-founder of Repubblika, insisted the acquittal should not cause the public to surrender. He called for sustained solidarity with Caruana Galizia’s family, who he noted turned their private grief into a broad public crusade, “fighting for journalists they did not know and institutions that failed them.”

In a letter written by Michael Vella, Caruana Galizia’s father, and read out by his two granddaughters – Daphne’s nieces – Megan and Amy Mallia, Vella expressed his gratitude for the persistence of those who have been participating in the monthly vigils “in the face of threats and adversity, in summer heat and freezing rain, and throughout the COVID pandemic.”

He said that the “quest for justice enters a new phase” and described it as “an attainment of [Daphne’s] ideals… of a country governed not by corruption and fear, but by sound institutions and the rule of law.”