Daphne’s murder remains a European test of the rule of law

Businessman Yorgen Fenech has been acquitted of complicity in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The verdict is an obscene miscarriage of justice, extraordinarily difficult to reconcile with the volume of evidence presented during the proceedings. It cannot close the European conversation about Daphne’s murder, the corruption she exposed or the institutional failures that surrounded her assassination.

Almost nine years after a journalist was blown up in an EU member state for doing her job, the Maltese justice system has failed so catastrophically that the man accused of commissioning her murder is now a free man.

The men who carried out the assassination are behind bars. The suppliers of the bomb have been convicted. The middleman admitted his involvement and identified the person he said commissioned the killing. Yet nobody has been convicted of ordering Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

For the EPP Group, this cannot be where the story ends. Daphne’s assassination was never simply a Maltese criminal case. It became a European test—whether the European Union can defend democracy, press freedom and the rule of law when they come under attack inside one of its own member states.

An independent public inquiry established that the Maltese State must bear responsibility for Daphne’s assassination. It found that a culture of impunity, generated at the highest levels of government, spread through the country’s institutions and created the circumstances in which her murder became possible.

The Fenech trial exposed the consequences of those failures.

Delayed searches, evidence that was not secured when it should have been, leaks and failures to properly investigate individuals close to political power all became part of the defence case. Serious questions were raised about powerful third parties and the authorities’ failure to investigate them with the urgency and rigour required.

There is a bitter irony here.

The State’s failure to establish the full picture, secure evidence and properly investigate powerful individuals was then used to create doubt in the courtroom. Institutional failure became part of the defence.

The possibility that others were involved in Daphne’s murder should have widened the search for responsibility. It should never have become a route to obscuring individual responsibility.

Nor can the events that followed Daphne’s assassination be ignored. Evidence was concealed. Justice was obstructed. Individuals close to the highest levels of political power benefited from treatment that ordinary citizens could never expect. The responsibility for those failures lies squarely with the Maltese State.

There are reports that the acquittal will be appealed. That is the very least that should happen. Every legal avenue capable of correcting this outcome must be rigorously pursued. But this case has exposed something larger than one verdict. A justice system that can spend almost nine years investigating and prosecuting the assassination of a journalist of international significance, only for the process to end in such a shambles, is plainly not functioning as it should.

Malta’s justice system requires urgent reform. The failures exposed here go to the state’s ability to investigate powerful people, preserve evidence and deliver justice where political and economic interests collide.

That is not merely a Maltese concern. Malta is a member state of the European Union. When Daphne was killed, she was investigating the intersection between corruption, political power and powerful business interests. She was killed to stop her work. Almost nine years later, prosecuting the corruption she exposed remains an essential part of delivering justice. Europe therefore has a responsibility too.

The assassination of a journalist investigating corruption is not simply a national tragedy. It is an attack on European democracy.

There can be no tolerance for political connections shielding individuals from scrutiny, no acceptance of compromised investigations and no normalisation of impunity when journalists are threatened or killed because of the truths they uncover.

Every credible lead into the wider conspiracy must be pursued. Evidence given under oath must be rigorously scrutinised. Anyone who obstructed or compromised the investigation must face accountability. And the corruption Daphne was killed to stop her from exposing must finally be prosecuted.

The European Commission must continue to insist on effective institutions, independent law enforcement and genuine rule-of-law reform in Malta. The European Parliament must continue to scrutinise Malta’s record and keep Daphne’s case firmly on the European agenda. A criminal trial has ended. Europe’s responsibility has not.

Justice for Daphne is about whether the European Union means what it says when it promises to defend democracy, press freedom and the rule of law.

For the EPP Group, there can be no ambiguity. It must.