Berlin, January 22, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a Maltese court of appeals decision on Wednesday as a significant step toward full accountability for the murder of prominent investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The decision moves the case closer to long-overdue justice after more than eight years of delay.
The court dismissed a bid to overturn the life sentences of Robert Agius and Jamie Vella for the 2017 murder of Caruana Galizia, who was reporting on government corruption. Following these final rulings, the two men sentenced in June 2025 will remain in prison for supplying military-grade explosives to the hitmen who killed Caruana Galizia in a car bombing near her home village of Bidnija on October 16, 2017.
In their appeal, Agius and Vella challenged their life sentences as excessive, arguing they were convicted as accomplices to murder. The court rejected the claim in its 200-page verdict, ruling that life imprisonment was neither excessive nor disproportionate given the gravity of the crimes.
“These convictions are a step forward, but full justice in this case is long overdue,” said Tom Gibson, CPJ’s deputy advocacy director, EU, in Brussels. “Europe is watching and waiting for the Maltese judiciary to ensure that all alleged perpetrators in the planning and orchestration of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder are brought to justice. Full, successful prosecutions will send a strong signal that impunity for crimes against journalists in Europe can be eliminated for good.”
As of January 2026, seven people, including Agius and Vella, have admitted to or been charged with complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder.
- In 2022, a court sentenced Alfred and George Degiorgio to 40 years each and fined them 50,000 euros (US$58,000) after they both pleaded guilty to procuring, planting, and detonating the bomb. In November, 2023, the appeals court upheld the original verdict.
- In 2021, Vince Muscat pleaded guilty at a pretrial hearing to being involved in planning and carrying out the assassination, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison under a reduced sentence. Muscat renounced his right to appeal the sentence, news reports said.
- In 2019, Melvin Theuma, a suspected middleman, received a presidential pardon in exchange for naming those responsible for the murder.
- The alleged mastermind, Yorgen Fenech, a powerful Maltese businessman with close ties to senior government officials, has pleaded not guilty and is currently awaiting trial, with no date set. Indicted in 2021 on charges of complicity in murder and criminal association, Fenech was denied bail in 2022 and remained in detention until February 2025, when he was released on bail. That same month, he successfully obtained a court order restricting media coverage of his legal proceedings. As of December 2025, he remained on strict bail conditions with ongoing bids to ease them.