Malta Trial Opens for Businessman Accused in Journalist Murder

A Maltese businessman entered a not-guilty plea this week as his trial opened for the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Prosecutors told the jury that the 44-year-old heir to a property empire paid three men €150,000 to plant a bomb under the journalist’s car seat. The device detonated on 16 October 2017 as she drove away from her home in the village of Bidnija.

Background of the case Caruana Galizia, 53, was a prominent newspaper columnist and blogger whose reporting had drawn repeated attacks from politicians and their supporters. Her death prompted widespread outrage across Europe. The defendant, arrested seven years ago, had been released on bail in February after the maximum legal detention period expired.

His trial began on Wednesday morning at the courts of justice in Valletta.

Details presented to the jury The indictment alleges the plot was hatched in April 2017 when the defendant contacted a taxi driver and bookmaker and instructed him to arrange the killing. Prosecutors said the defendant named a potential hitman and later handed over an envelope containing €30,000 as an initial payment.

The plan was paused during a June 2017 general election and resumed after the ruling administration was returned to power, according to the indictment. The hitmen ultimately chose a bomb fitted with a mobile-phone trigger, which one of them detonated by text message from a boat in the grand harbour.

prior convictions The defendant faces two charges: complicity in voluntary homicide and association with others to commit a crime. He is the last of seven men accused in the case to stand trial. Five of the seven have already been convicted. One received a presidential pardon after agreeing to testify.