Millionaire businessman Gorgen Fenech, accused of murdering Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has been released on bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gorgen Fenech, an heir to a casino and hotel group, was arrested and charged with complicity in Galizia\u2019s murder in November 2019. However, delays in bringing the case to a jury allowed his lawyers to successfully argue for bail, according to the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The delays have sparked a backlash from the journalist\u2019s family, who said the state\u2019s delays had \u201cdisappointed the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fenech and his family have pledged more than \u20ac50 million in cash and shares as security for his release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb as she left her home in Bidnija, Malta. The case has embroiled the ruling party in scandal and accusations of a cover-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fenech was released from prison five years after he was first charged. Wearing a navy jacket and jeans, clutching papers and accompanied by his lawyer, Fenech climbed into a jeep with tinted windows as television crews pressed towards him. He refused to speak, saying only \u201cthank you\u201d before the van drove away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fenech is one of seven men who have either confessed or been charged in connection with the murder. He denies the charges and claims innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To date, none of the accused have been tried. Two brothers pleaded guilty to planting the bomb and were sentenced to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their accomplice was given a reduced sentence after pleading guilty and providing evidence. Two of the men accused of supplying the bomb are in custody awaiting trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A taxi driver who claims he acted as a middleman secured a presidential pardon in exchange for testifying and is living under police protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, founded by her family, said after Fenech’s release: “While no one can be held in prison without trial indefinitely, trials could and should be completed before bail becomes a concern. Defendants, prosecutors and courts should not be allowed to drag out proceedings for years.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Millionaire businessman Gorgen Fenech, accused of murdering Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has been released on bail. Gorgen Fenech, an heir to a casino…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2850,7],"tags":[1299,3771,3482,921],"class_list":["post-22727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigation","category-research","tag-daphne-calizia","tag-journalist","tag-murder","tag-research-investigate-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22729,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22727\/revisions\/22729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}