Police investigating murder of Malta journalist arrest local businessman
VALLETTA, (Reuters) - Police arrested one of Malta’s leading businessmen yesterday as part of an investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Yorgen Fenech was detained by armed forces as he tried to leave the Mediterranean island before dawn aboard his luxury yacht.
The arrest came a day after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat offered to pardon a suspected middleman in the murder of Caruana Galizia if he provided legally binding evidence of who was behind the killing.
Muscat told reporters he had ordered additional police surveillance after news of the alleged gobetween emerged.
“Had I not done that, today we might be talking of a person or persons of interest having potentially escaped,” he said.
Muscat gave no further details on the grounds for Fenech’s arrest and denied suggestions that some of his political allies might also be implicated in the case.
Fenech’s lawyer was contacted for comment but has so far issued no statement. Under Maltese law, the police have 48 hours to interrogate and charge him or release him.
Caruana Galizia, an eminent anti-corruption journalist, was killed by a car bomb near the Maltese capital Valletta in October 2017 - a murder that shocked Europe and raised questions about the rule of law on the small island.
Eight months before her death, she wrote about a mysterious company in Dubai called 17 Black Limited, alleging it was connected to Maltese politicians but offered no evidence.
A Reuters investigation https://tinyurl.com/y8coeu3x last year revealed that Fenech was the owner of the firm.
According to a December 2015 email, uncovered by Maltese financial regulators, secret Panama companies owned by then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and Muscat’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, stood to receive payments of up to $2 million from 17 Black for unspecified services.