VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Authorities arrested a prominent Maltese businessman Wednesday who appears to be a “person of interest” in the assassination of a leading investigative reporter on the Mediterranean island.
Yorgen Fenech was on a yacht intercepted heading north from Malta by the Maltese military early Wednesday and forced back to port.
In remarks to reporters, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the slaying of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a powerful car bomb in October 2017.
But he did say that it appeared to result from comments he made a day earlier on the possibility of a pardon for an alleged middleman who had offered to identify the mastermind of the killing.
“If I had not given these instructions, maybe today we might be speaking of persons of interest who might have escaped,’’ Muscat told reporters. He declined to comment further out of concern that any comments might prejudice a case.
The slain journalist’s three sons were more direct in their comments on Twitter, making a link between the arrest and their mother’s assassination.
The prime minister said that no politician is tied to Caruana Galizia’s murder, but Caruana Galizia’s sons have said the arrested businessman is tied to Muscat’s chief of staff and a former energy minister.
In Parliament later, Muscat said he was willing to put himself under the scrutiny of lawmakers and answer questions once the investigations were concluded. “I will not abdicate, I will shoulder my responsibility”, he said.
No details of charges against Fenech have been revealed, but authorities have 48 hours to decide on them.
Fenech is a prominent hotelier and director of the Maltese power company. His name was on leaked documents as a source of income for companies named in the Panama Papers — millions of leaked documents that shed light on how the rich hide their money.
Caruana Galizia alleged on her blog eight months before her violent death that a company called 17 Black Ltd. was connected to Maltese politicians but provided no specific evidence. She was unable to discover who owned the company, and it remained unclear whether 17 Black had significance as part of her investigation into links between businessmen and the Maltese government.
That reporting was picked up by the Daphne Project after her murder. It reported in April 2018 that Malta’s anti-money laundering watchdog had identified Fenech, the chief executive of a Maltese property developer, as the owner of 17 Black.
The Daphne Project followed a paper trail to two Panama companies in the names of two people close to Muscat — his chief of staff and the former energy minister — that stood to receive payments from 17 Black for unspecified services. There is no evidence the payments went ahead.