The Attorney General has issued the Bill of Indictment against Yorgen Fenech, which was filed in court this morning.

Fenech is indicted for complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and criminal conspiracy. The first head of indictment requests the penalty of life imprisonment, while the second is 20 to 30 years in prison.

Legal sources said this development puts paid to any hopes Fenech might have had for bail.

The Bill of Indictment was filed by Deputy Attorney General Philip Galea Farrugia earlier this morning, just before a scheduled sitting in a bail application before the Criminal Court.

In Maltese law, the bill of indictment is a key part of the legal process: No person can stand trial for their alleged crimes without having first been served with a bill of indictment, which then cites the evidence against the accused as presented during the compilation of evidence stage.

The evidence includes photos, documents, hard-drives, pen-drives, chats, and statements amongst others.

It also lists the number of witnesses who testified in the compilation stage.  A total of 162 witnesses in fact testified in the case.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, one of Malta’s most prominent investigative journalists, was assassinated in a car bombing close to her home on 16 October 2017.

Three men – brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat – were arrested in connection with the bombing the following December, while Fenech was arrested in November 2019.

The Degiorgio brothers are also standing trial for their alleged involvement in the murder, while Muscat pleaded guilty to his involvement earlier this year and was sentenced to 15 years in prison as a result.

Mass protests followed Fenech’s arrest over his ties to government projects and to key members in the government such as Keith Schembri - whom then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had steadfastly defended even in the face of corruption allegations - who was also arrested at that time in connection with the murder.

The protests ultimately pushed Muscat into resigning from his post.

A public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder found the state responsible for creating a climate in the country, saying that it failed to recognise the real risks to the journalist’s life and failed to take the reasonable steps to avoid these risks.

Prime Minister Robert Abela apologised to the Caruana Galizia family after the inquiry’s conclusions, and pledged to take all of its recommendations onboard.