Every person involved in the murder of corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 has been arrested, the national police chief of Malta has stated.
Commissioner Angelo Gafa spoke before a court hearing on Wednesday night in which two new suspects were executed.
So far, seven men have killed Caruana Galizia or charged with complicity. These include real estate and energy magnate Yorgen Fenech, who pleads not guilty to mastering the murder, and a taxi driver who has already admitted to being the middleman in the alleged contract murder of one of Malta’s top journalists.
“With the evidence we have, we are able to say that every person involved, whether boss or accomplice, is arrested or charged,” Gafa announced at a news conference.
The remarks could cause some controversy, as Fenech has testified to police accusing senior political figures of having prior knowledge of the conspiracy.
At 11pm in the courts of the capital of Malta, Valletta, Robert Agius and his associate Jamie Vella pleaded not guilty to complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia. Vella, who tested positive for Covid-19, appears in a dangerous suit in the heavily guarded courtroom. Vella and Robert’s brother Adrian Agius have also been charged with involvement in a second murder, the 2015 shooting of a lawyer named Carmel Chircop. They pleaded not guilty.
George Degiorgio, who is already on trial as one of the assassins suspected of carrying out the murder of Caruana Galizia, has also been charged and denied that he carried out the murder of Chircop.
Attacks on homes and vehicles of the Agius brothers and Vella, who were arrested on Tuesday, exposed cash worth € 70,000, firearms, 350g of heroin and two bags of cocaine. At one of the residences, police found ten cars that were expected to be confiscated.
Europol, which has been assisting since the start of the murder investigation, has been tasked with retrieving data from 25 cellphones and two laptops seized during the operation.
Fenech was arrested in 2019 when he tried to leave Malta on board his yacht. He is in custody awaiting a decision on whether he will be tried. A taxi driver received a presidential pardon in exchange for his testimony against Fenech. A former friend of the magnate, Melvin Theuma, now lives in a safe house, under police protection.
The latest developments came after a key witness obtained a plea deal, which was approved by the Prime Minister of Malta and his cabinet on Monday. Three years after he first came forward with important evidence on the matter, Vincent Muscat obtained some mercy in exchange for his testimony.
After pleading guilty to his involvement in the murder of Caruana Galizia, he was immediately sentenced to 15 years, although his prison term could be converted to allow release in 2027. Muscat was also given a presidential pardon for acknowledging his involvement in the murder of Chircop in exchange for evidence against his alleged accomplices.
Caruana Galizia, a columnist and researcher whose blog on political corruption in Malta earned her a reputation as ‘one WikiLeaks woman’, was almost as well known in her homeland as the one she exposed in her creations. Her violent assassination, which took place near her home in the town of Bidnija, has turned Malta’s ruling Labor Party into political scandals.
The country’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat (no relationship with Vincent Muscat), was forced to resign in 2019 after allegations that members of his government tried to sabotage the police investigation.