Fact check
Is it true: Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination (Oct 16 2017, Bidnija Malta)?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
Partly established. The killing was a planned assassination: five men have been convicted of carrying it out or supplying the bomb (Vincent Muscat, 15 years on a guilty plea, Feb 2021; Alfred and George Degiorgio, 40 years each on guilty pleas, Oct 2022; Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, life, June 2025, appeal rejected Jan 2026), and the July 2021 public inquiry held the state responsible for the conditions that enabled it while finding no proof that the State itself played a role. What no court has established is who ordered it: Yorgen Fenech, the only person tried for commissioning the killing, was acquitted by a jury on 2 Sept 2026 (8-1 on both charges). The Attorney General's appeal, filed 22 Sept, is pending.
The claim
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a planned assassination ordered by people whose interests her investigative reporting threatened, and the Maltese state bore responsibility for the conditions that enabled it.
Key evidence
Public inquiry July 2021: state found responsible for enabling conditions
Three perpetrators convicted — sentences up to 40 years
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