Yorgen Fenech has been found not guilty by a jury applying the demanding standard required by criminal law, which means the prosecution did not prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt, Repubblika said Wednesday.

"We think first of Daphne's family. For almost nine years they have endured the murder of their wife and mother and daughter, the exposure of the most intimate details of their loss in public, years of criminal proceedings, ongoing attacks and vilification, and the intolerable burden of having to fight for truths the State itself was duty-bound to uncover. We recognise how painful and disappointing today's outcome must be for them," the NGO said.

We followed the evidence presented publicly during this trial. We believed, and continue to believe, that the prosecution presented a serious and compelling case. But it was for the jurors, not us, to decide whether that evidence proved guilt to the standard required by law. They have decided that it did not, the NGO added.

Their verdict does not, however, require Malta to pretend that the evidence heard during this trial was never heard. It does not erase the findings of the Public Inquiry. And it does not answer the profound questions that remain about corruption, impunity, political interference and the failures of the State, the statement said.

This trial has also forced Malta to confront uncomfortable truths. We heard evidence of an investigation of profoundly uneven quality; of the extraordinary proximity between political power, economic power, the police and people touched by the investigation; and of conduct which, even when deeply disturbing, exposed serious gaps in our criminal laws.

An acquittal does not make those problems disappear, the group said.

"Malta now needs a national reckoning. The corruption Daphne investigated must be prosecuted. Those politically responsible for the culture of impunity of the Muscat years must not be rehabilitated into public life. The State must sincerely accept its responsibility and apologise to Daphne's family. The recommendations of the Public Inquiry must finally be fully implemented," the statement said.

We need independent police, laws that effectively punish obstruction of justice and abuse of public office, anti-mafia laws and institutions, and real protection for journalists. We must teach future generations that corruption, patronage and silence in the face of wrongdoing are not normal features of public life, Repubblika said.

And we must eventually reconcile. But reconciliation cannot be built on forgetting. It must be built on truth, accountability and reform.

For almost nine years, citizens, journalists and civil society refused to allow delay, hostility and exhaustion to extinguish the demand for justice. Today neither vindicates nor repudiates any campaign: courts determine criminal responsibility, not the legitimacy of civic action. The experience of the past nine years nevertheless demonstrates why democratic vigilance matters.

The verdict answers the question the jury was required to answer. It does not answer all the others.

Malta must, Repubblika said.