Two men who were recognized as guilty of complicity in the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruan Galiziu received a life sentence on Tuesday. AP reported on Wednesday, TASR writes.
The judgment was filed after the Criminal Court jury in the Maltese capital of Valletta last week that Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were guilty of a journalist’s murder killed by a bomb explosion in the car before her house 16 October 2017. Both men during the trial claimed to be innocent.
The explosive was detonated by a mobile phone
The AP added that a bomb containing approximately 500 grams of gelatin explosive was designed to detonate a mobile phone. The attackers placed the device under the car driver’s seat and activated it remotely.
Three men – brothers Alfred and George Degiorgi who received for 40 years, and Vincent Muscat – was already reduced by the imprisonment and firing of the bomb.
The murder client
Another important witness was Melvin Theuma, a murder intermediary who received a presidential grace in exchange for information about the alleged murder client – entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.
Fenech, waiting for court, was released in February 2025 and is waiting for court. This man, who had close ties to the government of former Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, was detained in November 2019 while trying to leave the mortar on board his yacht.
Protests and reactions
Caruan Galizi was a prominent journalist, known for her reports on corruption and misconduct in which politicians and entrepreneurs were involved. At the time of her death she faced more than 40 lawsuits for their alleged defamation. Her violent death caused shock and protests on the island.
“Her assassination created in society that people behind her murder were sure of their impunity and that institutions that are obliged to protect it and society failed,” said journalist Sister Corinne Vell on behalf of the whole family.
She expressed the hope that judgments over a pair of accomplices will “be a step towards a safer world for journalists because they signal a potential murderer that there are high punishments for the murder of a journalist.”
