WhatsApp messages uncovered by police have raised fresh questions about possible bias among jurors who acquitted Yorgen Fenech of involvement in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.A juror who voted to acquit Yorgen Fenech reportedly wrote that “not even her children mourn her” in a WhatsApp group involving fellow jurors, just hours before thousands of people gathered in Valletta to protest the controversial verdict.According to Times of Malta, the messages were exchanged in a group called Il-linja tal-verità (The Line of Truth), which was created by the nine jurors two days after Fenech’s acquittal on 2nd September.“Not even her children mourn her!!” (Xjibkuha, qas uliedha) one juror wrote, while another reportedly responded with a message appearing to ridicule murder middleman Melvin Theuma’s references to his faith in God.The messages, together with social media posts previously shared by several jurors, could now form part of the prosecution’s efforts to secure a retrial.The WhatsApp conversations were discovered during police investigations following the arrests of four jurors connected to the trial.One juror is being investigated over her failure to disclose previous social media activity concerning Caruana Galizia and her assassination.Investigators reportedly discovered that she had shared a post in 2013 criticising the police protection provided outside the journalist’s home, suggesting that taxpayers were funding security while Caruana Galizia attacked innocent people through her writing.The same juror also shared a post in 2020 referring to Melvin Theuma and Yorgen Fenech and allegations involving a sitting judge.Another juror was found to have shared a Facebook post in 2021 opposing any compensation for Caruana Galizia’s family.The post criticised the murdered journalist over her reporting, her treatment of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff and claims concerning the Egrant affair.Meanwhile, a reserve juror reportedly wrote on social media in March 2023 that he could not stand looking at Caruana Galizia’s face.These discoveries have raised concerns about whether jurors entered the trial with pre-existing opinions that could have affected their impartiality.During the selection process, jurors were required to disclose social media activity relating to the case to help identify potential bias.Judge Edwina Grima had also explicitly instructed jurors to disregard any previously formed opinions about Fenech or Caruana Galizia and base their verdict entirely on evidence presented in court.Fenech was acquitted following a 55-day trial during which prosecutors alleged that he had financed and commissioned the €150,000 plot to assassinate the journalist.He denied involvement, while his defence argued that former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, was responsible for the murder.Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb on 16th October 2017.Her three sons, Matthew, Paul and Andrew, have spent years campaigning for accountability and justice following their mother’s assassination.During the trial, Matthew gave an emotional account of discovering the burning wreckage of his mother’s vehicle shortly after the explosion.Speaking during a recent protest, Matthew Caruana Galizia warned that years of hostility towards his mother had influenced public perceptions of her.He suggested that this hostility had extended even to individuals entrusted with delivering justice.A public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination previously concluded that the Maltese state bore responsibility for creating an environment that facilitated her murder.The inquiry also found that the journalist had been treated as a political adversary and subjected to sustained campaigns of hostility, harassment and personal attacks.The latest revelations concerning the jurors are expected to feature in legal arguments surrounding the prosecution’s attempt to challenge Fenech’s acquittal.What do you make of this?•