Killer of Journalist Daphne Caruana in Malta is sentenced to 15 years in Prison

The Justice of Malta today sentenced Vincent Muscat to 15 years, who admitted his participation in the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galicia in October 2017, the country’s media reported.

Muscat, one of the three defendants in the murder of Caruana Galicia, had recognized the charges today in an attempt to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office and lower his sentence, according to the “Times of Malta”.

The journalist’s family has trusted that “this step will begin to lead to full justice” to clarify what happened to Caruana Galicia, killed by a bomb in her car, in a statement posted on the foundation’s website that bears her name.

The family’s lawyer read that same statement at the Maltese court hearing where the process is taking place moments after Muscat admitted all the charges.

Brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio are also accused of installing and detonating the bomb planted in the journalist’s car, who was investigating corruption in their country at the time of her murder. All three have criminal records.

“He is a person who has admitted his involvement in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galicia, has deprived her of her right to life and her right to enjoy her family, including her grandchildren, who were born after she was murdered,” said the lawyer.

Muscat broke the defensive strategy carried out so far by the three suspects and admitted the crimes against him, despite the fact that Judge Edwina Grima warned him of the seriousness of his statement.

The condemned man had requested a total pardon from the Prosecutor’s Office last month and, although it was denied, he has continued to cooperate in order to obtain a reduction in his sentence, according to the “Times of Malta”, which cites sources close to the case.

Caruana Galicia died when a bomb blew up his car a few meters from his house, in an attack that shocked public opinion in the country and led to the resignation in 2020 of the Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, whom the family accused of allowing corruption in the country.

The journalist had actively investigated the relationship of the Maltese political class with the “Panama Papers” and uncovered corruption scandals that peppered the prime minister.

On November 19, 2019, the Government of Malta offered a presidential pardon to a man who claimed to know the mastermind behind the plan, and the next day businessman Yorgen Fenech, one of the most important in the country, was arrested for his alleged connection with this crime.

On November 25, 2019, the prime minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, resigned and was arrested a day later along with Adrian Vella, Fenech’s personal physician.

The first Minister Joseph Muscat announced on December 1, 2019, that he would step down when the Labor Party appointed a successor, who was Robert Abela, elected in January 2020.