Yorgen Fenech investigation opens in France

Yorgen Fenech is being investigated in France to determine whether proceeds from his assets in the country were used to finance the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Fenech is part-owner of a hotel in France and has a number stables where he keeps racing horses.

The preliminary investigation was opened by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office after a complaint by the sons and widower of the assassinated journalist, and Reporters Without Borders, a journalist’s organisation that campaigns for press freedom.

BREAKING: France's National Prosecutor (PNF) opens bribery investigation – "the Daphne Caruana Galizia case" – into Yorgen Fenech's assets in France, including a hotel and racehorses, following a criminal complaint by our family and @RSF_inter. https://t.co/7NSlRGjlQ0

— Paul Caruana Galizia (@pcaruanagalizia) February 12, 2020

The investigation will determine whether Fenech’s French activities were used to bribe foreign public officials, finance corruption in Malta and the execution of Caruana Galizia.

Fenech is currently facing charges in Malta of masterminding the murder by using a middleman to contract three killers. The journalist was murdered in a car bomb on 16 October 2017 just after leaving her Bidnija house.

Three men charged with planting the bomb and detonating it are awaiting trial. The middleman, Melvin Theuma, was granted a presidential pardon to tell all.

Court testimony has revealed that Fenech paid €150,000 for the murder.

In a statement on Wednesday, the French prosecutor said the investigation aims to “investigate whether the economic activities located in France of people suspected by the Maltese courts of having played a role in the assassination were the source of bribery of foreign public officials”. The investigation is entrusted to the Central Office for Combating Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses.

The results of the French probe will be sent to the judicial and investigative authorities in Malta.