Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546498
maltatoday TUESDAY • 9 SEPTEMBER 2026 YORGEN FENECH TRIAL blaming an abstraction or en- tity, which cannot serve jail time. Schembri's alleged role es- pecially in the alleged cov- er-up and the corruption deals which were central to the prosecution's thesis, de- serves investigation where evidence warrants it. But investigating the political network around the murder should not mean losing sight of Fenech's alleged role as the man who, according to the prosecution, commissioned the assassination. It matters because Fenech's alleged involvement in the murder strikes at the heart of one of Malta's greatest problem: the proximity of big business tycoons to the State and politicians. This should also be the fo- cus of the Opposition. We need laws and firewalls to put an end to kleptocracy and oligarchy irrespective of whether Abela or Borg are in power. The parliamentary debate also underlined the new- found unity of the opposition in the face of the verdict, but also exposed different tones of emphasis. Borg adopted a more measured tone, while Mark Anthony Sammut gave voice to the anger that has spread well beyond the PN. "This morning we woke up in a country that can blow you off the face of the earth because you write something they don't like," Sammut said. "That is the only sure fact." But that anger is not con- fined to the PN. Repubblika has stressed that respecting the verdict does not mean declaring that the institutions worked proper- ly. The left-wing Moviment Graffitti has expressed out- rage, emphasising the inces- tuous relationship between politicians and big business. European Parliament Pres- ident Roberta Metsola has said the verdict raises more questions rather than bring- ing the search for justice to an end. The reaction matters be- cause it shows that this is not simply a partisan dispute between Labour and the PN. Hopefully, they will also be joined by people who have supported or have in the past voted for the Labour Party. Alex Borg is right in tak- ing a pro-active role but he should not try to monopolise the outrage in a way which makes it hard for Labourites and independents to partici- pate in protests and express their outrage. Abela's bigger test But it is Robert Abela not Alex Borg who now faces the greatest political test. Five years after the public inquiry concluded the State created a climate of impunity that facilitated Daphne's as- sassination, many of its rec- ommendations remain un- implemented. In this sense, Alex Borg's deadline to gov- ernment on implementing the inquiry's recommenda- tions is pertinent. Moreover, government can- not answer every criticism by saying that the courts must be allowed to work. The courts have now worked. The jury has reached its verdict. And instead of resolution, we have even more confusion. The legal process must now continue. But government must also address the insti- tutional failures that existed before the trial and the weak- nesses exposed during it. This means confronting the political-business culture of the Muscat years. The problem was not simply that some businessmen knew some politicians. It was the extraordinarily close and in- formal relationship between political power, major busi- ness interests, parts of the public administration, senior police officials and the crimi- nal underworld. Change has to be institu- tional. Stronger rules on po- litical access, lobbying, gifts, conflicts of interest, com- munications and dealings between ministers and major private interests are part of the answer. So is full imple- mentation of the public in- quiry's recommendations, as well as rules proposed by the parliamentary ombudsman and OSCE regulating politi- cal lobbying, gifting and ac- cess. The government should not fear these demands. It should embrace them. But it runs even deeper than that. If Abela wants to demon- strate that the Muscat era is over, the answer cannot sim- ply be that he is not Joseph Muscat. The problem for Abela is that Yorgen Fenech's acquit- tal has also taken his own party back to its darker days: Jason Micallef, a political ap- pointee, describing a banner calling for justice for Daph- ne as "vandalism"; a culture minister down-playing the prosecution's own thesis that Daphne was killed for her role as a journalist expos- ing corruption; and various pro-government commenta- tors in denial about the sins of the Muscat era, marked by the direct access to govern- ment and state institutions that business tycoons like Fenech enjoyed. Added to this toxic cocktail is the complete indifference and hostility of a number of Labour supporters towards Daphne, her family and an- yone who criticizes Joseph Muscat. A clear political message by Abela that all this is unac- ceptable is still lacking, nine years after Daphne was murdered. Prudence has already had its chance For nine years, the responsi- ble position was to wait. Wait for the police. Wait for the magistrates. Wait for the prosecution. Wait for the trial. Wait for the jury. Those institutions have now taken their turn. And the result is that the man accused by the prosecu- tion of commissioning Daph- ne's murder has been acquit- ted. We are back to stage one. There may be a re-trial. There may be further inves- tigations. The judge has al- ready ordered trial material to be passed to ongoing mag- isterial inquiries so that pos- sible criminal responsibility of others can be assessed. So, this is not necessarily the end of the legal story. But politically, Malta has now reached a point of no-re- turn. The country was told the murder would be solved. For Labour, this was an opportu- nity to show that a political assassination carried out un- der its watch had also been solved under the same watch. Nine years ago, Malta was told by Joseph Muscat there would be no stone left un- turned until the culprits are brought to justice. It was told to trust the insti- tutions. Now the alleged mas- termind has walked free. The answer cannot be to tell the public that it is somehow irresponsible to ask why. The jury has done its job. The prosecution must now do its job by leaving no stone unturned to achieve a retrial. This must include fully in- vestigating the controversial antics and manoeuvring of the defence team and those who financed it, particularly where conduct that has come to light before, during and af- ter the trial raises legitimate questions. But parliament and govern- ment have another responsi- bility: to examine what went wrong, to implement the public inquiry's recommen- dations and to ensure that the political and economic rela- tionships that helped create a culture of impunity cannot be reproduced. Civil society also has a role in keeping the institutions in check and maintaining pres- sure against the culture of impunity, which has been re- inforced by the acquittal. Daphne's family has every reason to see the acquittal as a second murder, this time a wound inflicted by the jus- tice system itself. Nine years without establishing who commissioned the murder compounds the State's fail- ure. The country can only have closure when these questions are answered: Who commissioned the murder? Who else knew? Who else helped? Who was involved in the cover-up? Who tried to muddy the wa- ters before and during the tri- al? Why did the prosecution fail to convince eight jurors that Fenech was that person? What happened to the evi- dence that seemed so com- pelling before the trial? And why did Malta's insti- tutions prove incapable of protecting a journalist who, according to the prosecu- tion, was killed precisely for uncovering corruption and political-business-criminal networks surrounding the murder? Those questions are not an assault on the rule of law. They are part of democracy. The moment we stop asking questions, our democracy will die. And after nine years of wait- ing, Malta cannot afford to turn prudence into another word for silence. We cannot afford to go back to square one. become an excuse for silence