News Report | Ramola D | October 22, 2026
The PACE (Parliamentary Assembly–Council of Europe) Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights held a parliamentary hearing on September 9, 2026 featuring the witness of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, and his sister, Corinne Vella, who said at the meeting that “there cannot be lasting justice without change” in specific reference to reforms and changes that Malta had failed to make, in the 9-year wake of Daphne’s murder investigation and subsequent recommendations for reform issued by a board post a public inquiry in July 2021.
This meeting follows on the conclusion of a trial last week where Yorgen Fenech, the Maltese businessman accused of ordering her murder on October 16, 2026, was acquitted by 8 out of 9 jurors despite evidence pointing to his guilt, as discussed at the PACE hearing.
Listening to the testimonial at this PACE hearing, and perusing news reportage surrounding the trial and the anti-corruption journalism Daphne Caruana Galizia had been pursuing–which included notice of Yorgen Fenech and his companies in her posts–after she read the Panama Papers and uncovered links to Maltese offshore companies set up under anonymous trusts to be used, suspectedly, as fronts for kickbacks, it appears that a whole bunch of politicians in power were engaged in shady business deals and were plausibly collusive in the horrific plot to silence Daphne Galizia by murdering her.
Corinne Vella, Daphne’s sister, testified at the PACE meeting that the jury had been shown audiovisual evidence of Yorgen Fenech saying “I okayed the plan”. He had also paid Theuma, the middleman in the intended hit operation–this has been reported.
The actual hitmen have been apprehended and convicted and imprisoned. The mastermind though, if there was one rather than a few, has not.
It was widely suspected it was Yorgen Fenech. Well, he was recorded admitting as much, as noted at the PACE meeting.
Yet the judicial system failed them. The family reported that they intended to appeal, and that they felt all help and support needed to be given the police and prosecutor’s office: “At the same time we need to take stock of the systemic deficiencies which have led to this denial of justice, this failure to convict.”
High-Ranking Police Corruption Uncovered in Malta
One of the issues they faced right at the beginning, Matthew Galizia said was a police officer in charge of all the murder investigations in Malta who was very friendly with people in government, the same people Daphne Galizia had reported on, so they filed a lawsuit on conflict of interest to have him removed from the investigation, in which they were successful–“confirmed on appeal by the highest court in the land.”
At first, he said, their family was criticized “for attempting to do this, for kind of interfering, so to speak, in the work of the police and not letting the authorities do whatever they want.” They were vindicated when the police found a video on Fenech’s phone at the time of his arrest showing him drunk at a party with the same police investigator. That demonstrated to everyone in the entire country they had been right in taking that course of action, he said, from the beginning. “It became a victory for the entire nation of Malta, that we were able to remove corrupt people from the police.”
Corinne Vella clarified that this wasn’t just any officer, this was the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation department. “So he was a very useful contact for anyone who had an interest in corruption.” She also explained that corruption isn’t about the “brown envelopes” you give someone but cultivating a relationship with them, letting them play with your Rolls Royce, filming them doing that so you have evidence of compromise, doing things to make them feel a sense of importance they don’t get from their normal professional or personal life.
She reported that this Asst. Commissioner was in a WhatsApp friends group with Yorgen Fenech. “And despite that, when he knew of a murder plot to kill Daphne, because he says he knew of it, it wasn’t his, he didn’t tell his friend, the Commissioner, the head of the investigation department.”
Malta Police Networks Permitted Corruption and Crime in Government
Turns out Daphne Galizia had reported on police corruption herself, for many years, examining conflicts of interest as causing impediment to sensitive investigations, and examining networks of association and allegiance in law enforcement and government.
Marica Micallef writes: “Daphne repeatedly questioned whether conflicts of interest could affect sensitive investigations. She asked whether the public could have confidence in institutions where personal relationships intersected with criminal investigations. Again, those questions deserve to be examined, not because criticism proves guilt, but because institutional failures often become visible only when viewed collectively. Perhaps the most striking feature of Daphne’s reporting is that she rarely focused on one individual in isolation. Daphne examined relationships, connections, patterns, and institutions. A network. She repeatedly argued that corruption survives when those responsible for enforcing the law stop acting independently.”
This article calls attention to police-corruption reportage at Daphne’s pen but also notes that the hitmen (the Degiorgio brothers among them) who carried out her assassination gave testimonial about a group of people involved in planning her murder, mentioning police officers, present and past in high posts, as well as ministers in the government.
Some coverage of the trial, which includes information gleaned from the police investigation:
Council of Europe’s PACE Investigation and Report Ongoing
PACE has not concluded its investigation, with the Rapporteur for the PACE Office of Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Baroness Shami Chakraborti, a UK barrister and well-known human rights activist continuing her report, which is titled Justice delayed: the unfinished implementation of the Daphne Caruana Galizia case, and whose opening memorandum can be found here: https://rm.coe.int/committee-on-legal-affairs-and-human-rights-justice-delayed-the-unfini/48802bab72
Climate of Impunity, Culture of Impunity
At the September 9, 2026 hearing, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister Corinne Vella said “that the culture of impunity in Malta that had enabled her murder was “engendered by government” and that this culture had in fact been strengthened by the assassination and the events since” (PACE: https://pace.coe.int/en/news/10400/members-of-daphne-caruana-galizia-s-family-at-a-pace-hearing-denounce-the-failure-to-convict-anyone-for-ordering-her-murder)
Excerpt: “Introducing the hearing, rapporteur Baroness Shami Chakrabarti (United Kingdom, SOC) expressed concern that, nine years after the assassination, the absence of critical reforms in Malta continues to leave the country vulnerable to high-level corruption and has limited the press freedom which could hold it in check. She recalled the “shocking” conclusions of the Maltese public inquiry into the journalist’s murder, finalised in July 2021, which found that had the assassination – and its repercussions – not occurred, the general situation may have deteriorated further to such an extent that the state could be described as being led by a mafia organisation.
Baroness Chakrabarti also recalled the finding of the public inquiry that although there was no evidence the Maltese state as such had a role in the murder, it bore responsibility for it “by creating a climate of impunity, generated from the highest levels at the core of the administration and spreading to other entities such as regulatory institutions and the police”. This impunity applied not only to the highest public officials, but also to a restricted circle of politicians, businessmen and criminals. Her report is ongoing.”
Several important points were made by various of the attendees from different countries at the hearing who weren’t introduced properly, making it difficult to report on adequately; please watch the PACE hearing (video posted above) for their remarks.
In closing, Corinne Vella made the point about government needing to be reformed and anti-mafia legislation needing to be reinstated, just as much as those involved needing to be brought to trial and convicted. “The best protection for a journalist is for swift action against the people they are investigating and expose. And what I will say again what we’ve always said, lasting justice, there cannot be lasting justice without change. So even if we convict everyone, even if everyone that Daphne has exposed has been convicted, unless there is change, it could happen again. It’s too late for us, but it might not be too late to save someone else.”
Journalism to Expose Crime and Corruption in High Places and Legislation to End Same Matters
Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination shocked the world, especially when it was learned she had been exposing local corruption in her own home country. Looking at what has transpired over the past nine years as reported in the UK and Europe, it is reassuring that enquiries and investigations and a criminal trial were conducted, and the plot to kill her uncovered. In the process, crime, corruption and conspiracy in police and government circles in Malta was revealed. Which is absolutely amazing, given the high level of crime, corruption and conspiracy in police, military, Intelligence, and government circles the world over, ranged against the common citizen, and running its own “free press” propaganda media to maintain a fraudulent hold on what gets reported, what gets written about and spoken about, and how, and when.
It is amazing that the perpetrators of this most heinous crime against a journalist were pinpointed, and that (some) police and FBI came together long enough to succeed to such an extent in this investigation–which from a technology standpoint is nothing less than one would expect from the Age of Cellphones, texting, and constant communication.
But the importance of sending a message to all entrenched criminals occupying power positions in government, police, courts here–you cannot kill journalists, you cannot attack those exposing you, you cannot place hits on journalists, you cannot stop journalistic exposure–cannot be overestimated. Daphne was reportedly harmed extensively even when alive, 3 of the family’s dogs killed, and 48 libel suits using SLAPP–Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation–placed against her. After her death, anti-SLAPP legislation was adopted by the EU: https://www.the-case.eu/latest/justice-denied-again-to-daphne-caruana-galizia/.
The “culture of impunity” or “climate of impunity” referred to in Daphne’s case pervades, the world over, and is especially visible in the US, where counter-terrorism and “countering violent extremism” covers have been used since the ’90s to suppress, repress, and oppress the citizenry, both overtly with chilling laws and statutes embodying overreach and abuse of powers which need to be removed and covertly with the use of “advanced technology” as reported in the 1994 DOD-DOJ MOU bringing Army and Police efforts together to develop, test, and use so-called non-lethal electromagnetic technologies on all. Which police and governments then hide with Mental Health Fraud, using bought-and-sold psychiatrists, psychologists, DAs and judges to enact Repression on the populace.
This is reprehensible, and it is to be hoped that the insistent investigation into Daphne’s assassination has ripple effects worldwide and begins to stir and unravel the networks of crime and corruption which keep Journalism from flourishing, or even functioning, in some places–that protections for journalists increase everywhere, and that journalists are respected and treated with dignity, awareness, and respect rather than being threatened, hit with EMF weapons in silent, near-death hits (as this writer has frequently experienced), or have their cars blown up–like Michael Hastings, Don Bolles, Daphne Galizia–or shot at close range–like Gauri Lankesh–or killed in a truck collision–like Serena Shims.
Some developments succeeding the PACE hearing and the trial:
Number of jurors in Yorgen Fenech trial arrested and released on police bail, Malta Today, September 17, 2026
The Daphne Project continues and publishes Daphne’s work.
Running Commentary is her blog, still online.
Vexatious Libel Suits covered at The Daphne Foundation.
