VALLETTA, Malta: The man accused of detonating a car bomb in 2017 that killed a prominent Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, has confessed to the crime during an interview with Reuters, adding that he will soon implicate others.
The interview with the jailed George Degiorgio was conducted during research for a podcast into the murder, entitled, “Who Killed Daphne?”
Speaking from jail, George Degiorgio said, “For me it was just business. Yeah. Business as usual! Of course I feel sorry,” he said during the podcast.
His admission came after several attempts by Degiorgio’s lawyers to secure a pardon in return for testimony about Caruana Galizia’s murder and other alleged crimes involving prominent local figures.
After the assassination by car bombing, which caused shock across Europe, Maltese authorities charged Degiorgio and two other men, his brother Alfred and an associate, Vince Muscat, in October 2017 with the murder performed at the behest of a leading businessman on the island.
In his interview with Reuters, Degiorgio said he would plead guilty ahead of any jury trial, stating, “I am going to speak to the magistrate,” indicating he would provide testimony to implicate others in the murder and in a previous plot to kill Caruana Galizia.
In November 2019, Yorgen Fenech, one of Malta’s richest businessmen, was also charged with commissioning Degiorgio and his two accomplices to carry out the murder.
Fenech, who has denied the charge, was identified as the mastermind by an alleged middleman, taxi driver Melvin Theuma, who escaped prosecution in return for testifying.
Caruana Galizia was killed for publishing a series of corruption allegations against prominent people, including ministers in the island’s Labour Party government, and her murder raised suspicions that some of the people she was investigating could be involved.
Reuters and the Times of Malta first identified Fenech in connection with Caruana Galizia’s murder in November 2018.
Maltese prime minister Robert Abela previously condemned attempts by the Degiorgios to win a pardon and called them “criminals.”
A lawyer for the Degiorgios responded by saying the prime minister was breaching their rights to a fair trial and indicated the brothers had “direct information” about a minister’s involvement.
