Two men have been convicted in Malta of supplying the explosives that killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in the Mediterranean island state in 2017.
Following a six-week trial, Robert Agius, 41, and Jamie Vella, 42, were both found guilty late Thursday of complicity in the assassination of the 53-year-old investigative reporter by supplying the military-grade explosive used in the car bombing near her home.
They’re expected to be sentenced early next week, with prosecutors having asked for them to be given life in prison.
The three hitmen who carried out the murder — brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio together with Vince Muscat — have already been convicted.
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Agius and Vella were arrested four years after the murder, after Muscat agreed to testify against them in return for a reduced sentence in that case, and a pardon for a separate murder.
Muscat was also the prosecution’s key witness in the latest, in which more than 150 people testified before the jury, including relatives of Caruana Galizia, members of the FBI and a former government minister.
The murder of Caruana Galizia, who had written about cronyism and sleaze within Malta’s political and business elite, drew international outrage.
There were also large protests in Malta against prime minister Joseph Muscat over his perceived efforts to protect friends and allies from the investigation. He announced his resignation in December 2019.
A public inquiry published in 2021 found no evidence of state involvement in Caruana Galizia’s assassination, but found the government created a “climate of impunity” for those who wanted to silence her.
In a statement, the Caruana Galizia family said the latest convictions brought them “a step closer to justice.”
“Yet, eight years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed,” they said.
Caruana Galizia, who was called a “one-woman Wikileaks,” had reported on allegations of money laundering, bribery and corruption in Malta for 30 years. She relentlessly pursued politicians in her home country on her blog, Running Commentary.
“She knew that the powerful people that she was writing about were closing in on her,” Galizia’s son Paul told 60 Minutes after her death. “They were using every possible means to shut her down. She knew that, and that frightened her deeply.”
The Degiorgio brothers are serving 40 years each in prison for the murder, while Muscat received a reduced sentence of 15 years.
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Businessman Yorgen Fenech, who had close ties with Joseph Muscat’s government, is still awaiting trial on charges that he masterminded the murder.
He was arrested in November 2019 aboard his yacht as he tried to sail out of Malta. He was granted bail in January 2025, with no date yet set for his trial.
