The jury trial of businessman Yorgen Fenech, accused of masterminding the 2017 assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has now entered its third week. In just fifteen sittings, jurors have heard about secretly recorded confessions, forensic reconstructions of a car bomb, testimonies from the convicted hitman, and courtroom outbursts that twice ended in contempt charges.After over five years in custody, Fenech was granted bail in early 2025– reportedly Malta’s largest ever, with an €80,000 deposit, a €120,000 guarantee, and his aunt’s €50 million Tumas Group shares as security. Conditions include 24/7 police surveillance and a ban on going near the coast or airport, given he was originally caught trying to flee by yacht.Self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma received a presidential pardon in exchange for his testimony, Vince Muscat (il-koħħu), the Degiorgio brothers- Alfred (il-Fulu) and George (iċ-Ċiniż), and bomb suppliers Robert Agius and Jamie Vella (tal-maksar) have all already been convicted.Here’s how the trial has unfolded so far.Day 1 – Jury selected as Fenech pleads not guiltyThe trial opened after a tense five-hour jury selection process, held in sweltering 33°C heat, with a reserve juror fainting during proceedings.Fenech pleaded not guilty to charges of commissioning the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia as Judge Edwina Grima read out the bill of indictment: complicity in Caruana Galizia’s wilful homicide and criminal association to commit murder.The trial arrived only after Fenech’s eleventh-hour Constitutional Court petition- alleging a listening device had been planted where he met his lawyers in prison – was rejected days earlier. Grima told jurors their oath “means more than a simple kiss” and warned them to operate “as though we are literally in a bubble.”Daphne Caruana Galizia’s husband, sons, and sisters were present, alongside Fenech’s mother and a packed gallery of international journalists and press freedom observers.Day 2 – Prosecutors lay out the State’s caseProsecutor Anthony Vella delivered the opening address, arguing that although Fenech never set foot at the crime scene, “without Yorgen Fenech’s role, Daphne Caruana Galizia would not have been killed.”He walked jurors through the alleged timeline: a €150,000 fee agreed at the Busy Bee bar in Msida (€30,000 deposit, €120,000 on completion), the plot paused for the 2017 election, then revived afterward. He quoted Theuma’s secret recordings directly – Fenech allegedly saying he’d “throw her down” from Portomaso, and: “the one who plans out the matter has less of a problem than the one who does it.”Vella says that on tape, Theuma says “you gave me the 150”; Fenech replies simply, “I remember.” Vella also gave jurors two explainers of reasonable doubt, comparing standards of proof to floors of a building, and to peeling back a curtain to reveal a painting without needing “the whole picture.”A court marshal’s attempt to confiscate the courtroom sketch artist’s drawings, and a heated legal dispute serious enough that Grima warned lawyers they themselves risked contempt, added to a combustible day.Day 3 – Keith Arnaud begins testimonyAssistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud, the lead investigator, became the trial’s first witness. He traced the forensic chain from the Bidnija wreckage – burner phones, SIM cards, an SMS sent at 2:58pm that an FBI expert confirmed had remotely triggered the bomb – through to Theuma and finally Fenech.Investigators believe a second phone was operated from a vessel at sea, tracked by how it moved between masts around the Grand Harbour. Arnaud relayed Theuma’s most direct claim yet: that Fenech told him, “I need to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia because she knows something about my uncle,” before instructing him to contact Alfred Degiorgio.Jurors also heard that Theuma was handed a phantom government job paying roughly €890 a month, then a brown envelope with €150,000 after the 2017 election, on top of a €30,000 deposit already paid, with almost €500,000 more funnelled through him afterward for the Degiorgio brothers’ legal costs. Theuma reportedly kept receipts to prove to Fenech he wasn’t skimming any of it.Day 4 – Arnaud reveals details from Fenech’s police statementArnaud continued, reading from Fenech’s own 2019 police statement, including a claim that Keith Schembri once said he wanted to “get rid of” Caruana Galizia.Jurors heard that Theuma grew increasingly paranoid he’d be “silenced” once the Degiorgio brothers were arrested, enough that he was approached by Kenneth Camilleri, a security officer at the Office of the Prime Minister, and Johann Cremona, who assured him the brothers would get bail (they ultimately weren’t).Arnaud noted that up until Theuma’s own arrest, Fenech’s name had never once surfaced publicly in the murder investigation.Day 5 – Escape plans and secret chatsPhone evidence took centre stage: chats between Fenech, his uncle Ray and his brother Franco revealed what prosecutors called a detailed escape plan drawn up after Theuma’s arrest – a boat to Sicily, then onward travel.Jurors saw Fenech’s phone chats plotting his planned escape by yacht as police closed in, including messages asking relatives to prepare cash and care for his children.“Please care for my children. I don’t care what happens to me,” he told family. Jurors also heard Fenech’s claim that when he told Schembri the murder plan was moving forward, Schembri’s only reply was “Mexxi, mexxi” (“go ahead”) Arnaud also exhibited an audio-visual statement from former Muscat-era OPM security guard Kenneth Camilleri, and a statement from Inspector Kurt Zahra, who was involved in Fenech’s actual arrest.Day 6 – Defence challenges the investigationDefence lawyer Giannella de Marco used cross-examination to press Arnaud, challenging the police investigation, questioning searches at Castille, alleged leaks, the handling of Melvin Theuma’s secret recordings and why Keith Schembri was never charged.Arnaud insisted investigators followed every lead and acted on the available evidence. Day 7 – Arnaud’s testimony concludesAssistant Police Commissioner Keith Arnaud wrapped up five days of testimony, with jurors stepping in to ask about the Theuma-Schembri Castille photo and why police never seized the phone that captured it. The trial then pivoted into forensic and explosives testimony, linking the bomb’s construction to earlier device fragments. Day 8 — An eyewitness describes the moment of the blastOne of the trial’s most harrowing sittings: driver Francis Sant testified he was driving from Mosta towards Bidnija when he saw Caruana Galizia’s car approaching from the opposite direction, the driver visibly panicked. He described a first spark “like a festa petard,” said she was still conscious and trapped against the wheel – then, in his own words to the jury:“I heard her screaming.” A second, larger blast followed, sending the car careering into a field engulfed in flames. Jurors were also shown graphic crime scene and post-mortem material, with pathologists presenting findings from the examination of her remains.Day 9 – The scale of the evidence trailScene-of-crime officers walked jurors through searches carried out across Malta after the murder from a potato shed in Marsa to properties in Żebbuġ, St Paul’s Bay and Mosta, presenting 93 exhibits and hundreds of photographs documenting the scope of the investigation.Day 10 – An FBI expert traces the bomb’s phonesFBI cellular analyst Richard Fennern testified he was confident he’d identified the exact devices used to detonate the bomb, singling out one suspicious number that had been activated only three times in its entire existence – evidence he said pointed squarely to its use as a remote trigger rather thanDay 11 – Vince Muscat takes the stand: the alleged 2015 plotThe trial shifted decisively from police evidence to first-hand confession, as convicted hitman Vincent Muscat (“il-Koħħu”), now serving 15 years after striking a plea deal, began what would become the most detailed account yet of how the murder was planned.The day opened with the tail end of IT expert Martin Bajada’s testimony, who confirmed Schembri and Cardona were each mentioned hundreds of times (237 and 175 respectively) in emails recovered from Caruana Galizia’s own accounts — though he said it would have been difficult to recover data from Schembri’s alleged devices.Muscat then told jurors the plot traced back to 2015, when George Degiorgio told him:“Chris Cardona wanted us to get rid of Daphne Caruana Galizia.”According to Muscat, Degiorgio said four people wanted her dead – among them former police commissioner Michael Cassar – and asked €150,000 for the job. Lawyer David Gatt allegedly acted as the go-between with Cardona, and was himself promised a cut of the money.Muscat described the plan in granular detail: George Degiorgio would drive a van, Jamie Vella would shoot Caruana Galizia with a machine gun as she left her Bidnija home.He and George spent roughly six hours over two days staking out the house, but never once saw her.Around the same time, George allegedly began messaging Caruana Galizia directly on WhatsApp, posing as a source with information; she rebuffed him and asked to meet in person instead.The 2015 plot collapsed after a month or two when a promised €50,000 deposit from Cardona never arrived. Jamie Vella allegedly dismissed Cardona as “all talk, he won’t follow through.”Muscat also claimed Gatt had a nervous habit of giving a thumbs-up whenever things were progressing, and once made an explosive-hand-gesture toward him without ever discussing the murder outright. When he allegedly asked what the number one meant, he was told that Gatt would be referring to “Malta’s number one,” which Muscat later found out was in refernce to then OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri.Muscat then described how the plan resurfaced in 2017 once Alfred Degiorgio met Theuma at the Busy Bee – Theuma naming Caruana Galizia as the target, the group settling on €150,000 (€30,000 up front), buying cheap Nokia burner phones, and pausing until after that year’s general election before resuming. The day closed with the prosecution showing Muscat surveillance photographs; he stood up from the witness stand to identify his own car in one of the images.Day 12 – Cross-examination, the bomb, and threats against his childrenMuscat’s testimony continued under a gruelling cross-examination from defence lawyer Giannella de Marco, who repeatedly challenged his recollection, including an inconsistency over exactly when Theuma’s €30,000 deposit was paid (Muscat first said after the 2017 election, then said he believed it was actually just before).Pressed on the 2015 plot, Muscat admitted he and “il-Fulu” (Alfred) had gone looking for Cardona at a bar in Siġġiewi, seeking his help, and conceded Alfred had feared Cardona might flee the country before they could reach him. Muscat also testified that after the Degiorgio brothers realised he was cooperating with police, they threatened to throw acid on his children – a threat he said left him afraid for his family’s safety. He further claimed his own lawyer at the time, Arthur Azzopardi, had urged him during an interrogation to pin all the blame on Theuma – something Azzopardi allegedly did because he too was being threatened.On the mechanics of the actual 2017 bomb, Muscat gave jurors some of the trial’s most chilling technical detail: the device was built to guarantee Caruana Galizia would be killed, not merely injured. He recalled George Degiorgio insisting it must not end up “like Romeo Bone’s bomb” – a reference to a device that failed to kill its target in an earlier, unrelated case – so the explosive was placed beneath the driver’s seat and paired with a bottle of petrol to maximise its lethal effect. Muscat also alleged George obtained Caruana Galizia’s mobile number and repeatedly texted her in the run-up to the murder. In an oddly mundane coda that’s stuck with observers, he recalled the group stopping for pastizzi at Serkin afterward.Tensions in the courtroom ran high enough that Judge Grima at one point cut in: “I’ve had enough. Behave yourselves.”Day 13 – The Degiorgio brothers point fingers to Schembri and CardonaThe day opened with criminologist Savior Formosa presenting detailed 3D models of the crime scene, before turning to explosive, chaotic testimony from the two men who actually built and detonated the bomb.Alfred Degiorgio, “il-Fulu,” serving 40 years, interrupted Judge Grima before he’d even been formally questioned, blurting out: “Before I testify, I want to say that Chris Cardona, David Gatt and Keith Schembri are involved in the murder… without a doubt.” He then refused to answer virtually every question put to him by prosecution and defence alike, telling the court: “I want protection for my family if I choose to testify. You don’t know how dangerous these three people are… I choose not to testify.” Warned repeatedly that he was legally obliged to answer, he still refused, and was arrested and charged with contempt of court on Judge Grima’s orders.His brother George, “iċ-Ċiniż,” took a very different approach, giving a combative, detailed account that dovetailed with the defence’s own narrative that others, not just Fenech, were behind the murder. He claimed Cardona first approached them in 2015, telling them to “get rid of her, because she’s going to destroy the party,” referring to the Labour Party.He said Theuma later told him and Alfred directly that “Keith sent him,” and claimed he’d separately met Cardona, who confirmed Schembri had engaged Theuma. George also alleged that police abruptly cut off talks over a presidential pardon the moment he said he intended to implicate Cardona and Schembri. As the day wore on, George grew increasingly combative, accusing prosecutors of trying to influence the jury, and at one point snapping when told he was obliged to testify: “Take all the action you want… You have another 40 for me?” a reference to his existing 40-year sentence. Judge Grima ultimately found him guilty of contempt for repeatedly interrupting proceedings and fined him €500; George shot back, “Make it €1,000 instead of €500,” to which Grima replied, “I’m the one who decides the figures here.”Despite the theatrics, jurors did get one direct question in before he stepped down, asking how much money he’d received between 2015 and 2017.Day 14 – The ice cream tub and the Cutajar connectionSuperintendent Nicholas Vella walked jurors through the money-laundering probe that led to Theuma’s 2019 arrest, including footage, shown to the jury for the first time, of police opening his infamous Smiles ice cream tub. Inside: two mobile phones, a voice recorder used to secretly tape Fenech, USB sticks, and the now-infamous photo of Theuma with Schembri at Castille. Vella also revealed that a phone seized from Edgar “il-Ġojja” Brincat held a contact saved as “MRC,” traced to Cutajar, called in the same night investigators found it. Police tallied more than €790,000 in cash across Theuma’s properties and family.Day 15 – Paying the hitmen’s familiesWitness Lawrence Pace, “il-Lolly,” described a support network for the jailed conspirators: Theuma arranged €300 a month for Muscat and each Degiorgio brother, funnelled through Marsa bar owner Joseph Brincat, who confirmed five cash transfers to Mario Degiorgio. Europol explosives expert Mario Cmarec separately detailed the military-grade explosive used to build the bomb.Fifteen days in, jurors have heard from lead investigators, forensic specialists, an eyewitness, and, most strikingly, the confessed killers themselves, each pointing to a different set of hands behind the plot. The prosecution’s case continues, with further witnesses expected in the weeks ahead.The prosecution is being led by lawyers Godwin Cini, Anthony Vella and Danika Vella from the Office of the Attorney General, assisted by Assistant Police Commissioner Keith Arnaud and Inspector Kurt Zahra. Fenech is represented by lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianluca Caruana Curran and Giannella de Marco, while the Caruana Galizia family is participating in the proceedings as parte civile, represented by lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi. •