Nine years after the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Europe must finally address Malta's culture of impunity, write Pieter Omtzigt, former Dutch MP and Council of Europe rapporteur, and Emanuel Delia, Maltese journalist and co-founder of Repubblika. Much of the corruption exposed by Caruana Galizia remains unpunished, and Brussels must carry on her work and demand reform.
Verdict and trial revelations
Last week, a jury acquitted Yorgen Fenech, one of Malta's most prominent businessmen, of complicity in the assassination and criminal association. The jurors decided by eight votes to one that Fenech's guilt had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt. Omtzigt and Delia said they were shocked by the verdict but respect it, and are not asking for it to be disregarded or reversed by political pressure.
However, the verdict does not erase what the trial exposed. Fenech admitted that he knew of the murder plan before Caruana Galizia was killed and that, while the plan was still live, he gave €50,000 to Melvin Theuma, the middleman who recruited the killers. Fenech said the money was intended to reimburse Theuma for money already paid and to persuade him to stop the assassination. He also admitted he passed confidential information about the police investigation to Theuma and gave him further sums of money. He told the court he was blackmailed by Theuma. Fenech denied commissioning or financing the murder, explaining that he had been acting out of misplaced loyalty to Keith Schembri, then chief of staff to Malta's prime minister and one of his closest friends.
Culture of impunity and state failures
Omtzigt and Delia describe the picture as appalling: a businessman at the heart of Malta's economic establishment, the prime minister's closest aide, and the man organising the murder of the country's most prominent investigative journalist were moving within the same small circle. Caruana Galizia had spent the last years of her life investigating precisely this proximity between political power, private wealth, and people willing to operate outside the law.
The Maltese government itself commissioned an independent public inquiry into her assassination. It concluded in 2021 that the state had created a culture of impunity and an atmosphere in which her murder became possible. Five years later, most of its recommendations remain unimplemented, and there has been nothing approaching adequate accountability for the corruption Caruana Galizia was investigating.
The authors draw parallels with Russia, where people were convicted for their roles in the murders of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, but the European Court of Human Rights found that the authorities had failed adequately to identify and pursue those who actually commissioned the killings. They argue that Malta is not Russia, but convicting the people who carried out a murder cannot be the end of the state's responsibility if whoever commissioned the crime remains unidentified and unpunished.
European implications and next steps
Malta's failures do not stop at its coastline. A licence to conduct business in Malta, with limited government supervision, is effectively a licence to conduct business across the European Union. Weak enforcement in one member state creates opportunities throughout the union, making impunity in Malta a European problem, not merely a Maltese one.
On Wednesday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) returned formally to Caruana Galizia's case. Its committee on legal affairs and human rights heard evidence from her son Matthew Caruana Galizia and her sister Corinne Vella. Shami Chakrabarti, the committee's rapporteur, is preparing a new report entitled 'Justice delayed: the unfinished implementation of the Daphne Caruana Galizia case'. Her mandate includes examining the implementation of the public inquiry's recommendations and Malta's compliance with Council of Europe standards on the rule of law and press freedom.
The authors urge Malta's prime minister, Robert Abela, to meet Chakrabarti at the earliest opportunity and give her work the Maltese government's full cooperation. They also call on the Council of Europe to go further, noting that PACE's monitoring committee has already raised concerns about corruption, checks and balances, parliamentary oversight, and the continuing culture of impunity in Malta. The events of the past week strengthen the case for renewed, comprehensive scrutiny of the state of the rule of law in Malta.
Europe owes something to Caruana Galizia and her family, who have spent nearly nine years fighting for truths the state should have established without requiring their persistence. There is also a matter of European self-interest: the EU and the Council of Europe cannot afford pockets within their borders where serious corruption goes unpunished and political and economic power can frustrate accountability. The jury has decided that the prosecution did not prove Yorgen Fenech criminally responsible for the murder, and that judgment must be respected, but it cannot become an answer to everything else.
