Malta arrests businessman ‘over murder of investigative reporter’


Support us and go ad-free

Maltese authorities have arrested a prominent businessman who appears to be a “person of interest” in the assassination of a leading investigative reporter.

Yorgen Fenech was on a yacht that was intercepted sailing northwards away from Malta by the military early on Wednesday and forced back to port.

In remarks to reporters, prime minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the murder of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a car bombing in October 2017, but he said it appeared to result from comments he made a day earlier about the possibility of a pardon for an alleged middleman who had offered to identify the mastermind of the killing.

Daphne Caruana Galizia
Daphne Caruana Galizia (Jon Borg/AP)

Muscat said he instructed police to be on the lookout for unusual actions by “people of interest” in the long-unsolved murder, after announcing on Tuesday that a pardon would be possible for the middleman if information he provided could stand up in court.

“If I had not given these instructions, maybe today we might be speaking of persons of interest who might have escaped,” the PM told reporters.

Read on...

Support us and go ad-free

No details of charges against Fenech have been revealed, but authorities would have 48 hours to decide on them.

Fenech is a prominent hotelier and director of the Maltese power company. His name was on leaked documents as a source of income for companies named in the Panama Papers.

Support us and go ad-free

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us