The Caruana Galizia family has filed an application for moral and material damages in Malta’s civil courts against “the five men formally identified as having played a role in Daphne’s murder.”

In a press release, the family said that their legal action is to stop those involved “from using their assets to further corrupt our public life and institutions.”

The family did not mention who the five men are. 

Any damages recovered will be diverted to the objectives of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, which aims at ensuring full justice for Daphne’s assassination, protecting investigative journalists, ending impunity for the murder of journalists, the guardianship of Daphne’s work, public interest litigation and access to justice, and support independent and non-partisan media.

Joe Zammit Maempel and Eve Borg Costanzi signed the application.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated on 16 October 2017.

Three men – Alfred Degiorgio, George Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat – where arrested in December that year and have been charged with carrying out the assassination.

Businessman Yorgen Fenech was arrested in November 2019 and is accused of masterminding the murder. 

His arrest was possible after the granting of a presidential pardon to Melvin Theuma, who told police that he was the middleman who facilitated that murder.