Yorgen Fenech's defence lawyers have issued a letter to the media in which they stated that it is "unacceptable that a practically unanimous verdict should be the subject of attack on the basis of malicious lies and fabrications."

Fenech's lawyers said that an 8-1 jury verdict "deserves respect and is not to be undermined."

The letter was sent to the media on Friday afternoon, just over a week after Fenech was acquitted of charges of complicity and conspiracy in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.  He was acquitted via an 8-1 jury verdict which left many in the country stunned.

Since then, tapes of Fenech's interrogation by police have been published, and details have emerged about a survey conducted in the lead up to the trial - a survey which, it is alleged, based its sample off the official jurors list for 2026.

However, Fenech's defence team said that the idea that three professionally-commissioned surveys over the course of five years "held in the context of an orchestrated media blitz against the accused in the years leading up to the trial could have influenced the jury, is at best, incredible."

The defence team said that the existence of the survey was actually brought to the attention of the court by the lawyers of the Caruana Galizia family a month prior to the trial, and that the court had altered the list of potential jurors for the month of July as a precaution.

The court also asked each juror whether they had been contacted to participate in the said survey, the defence said.

"Each and every single juror whose name was drawn, whether subsequently empaneled or not, replied in the negative. This was done on oath," the lawyers said.

They also noted that "at no point did the lawyers for the Caruana Galizia family or the prosecution request that the trial be postponed or ask for any other remedy regarding the trial."

The defence team said that it is "beyond unfair on all these jurors who served the community at great personal sacrifice, to be subjected to spurious allegations of bribery."

They also noted that it is unjust that the defence team has been subjected to "libellous allegations" which are "all in an effort to cover up the weaknesses of the case of the prosecution, the inadequacy of the lawyers of the prosecution, and that of the lawyers for the victim's family, the underlying corruption of the investigation, and the family's inexplicable persistence in their refusal to accept that it was others who were involved in the heinous act resulting in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia."  

These actions are in aid of trying to undermine the verdict, the lawyers said.

They said that various facts had emerged during the trial under cross-examination which had previously been hidden or "irregularly ignored" by the prosecution, including some not reported by the media.

These facts led the court in its sentence to order the police to investigate new leads that emerged during the hearing of the trial.

The defence team also said that it reserves the right to take any legal action "to counter further repetition of lies and baseless allegations in their regard."

Fenech's defence team is made up of lawyers Gianella de Marco, Charles Mercieca, and Gianluca Caruana Curran.