Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Daphne Caruana Galizia was a journalist in Malta. She wrote about corruption. In 2017, a bomb in her car killed her.
A rich businessman named Yorgen Fenech was later arrested. Police say he paid other men to kill her.
This week, Fenech went to court. He said he is not guilty. A jury of nine people will decide if he is guilty or not.
The men who built and used the bomb are already in prison. Many reporters from other countries came to watch the trial.
- journalist
- a person whose job is to write news stories
- corruption
- dishonest behavior by people in power, often involving money
- bomb
- a device that explodes and can cause great damage
- businessman
- a man who owns or runs a company
- arrested
- taken by police because they are suspected of a crime
- guilty
- having done something wrong or broken the law
- jury
- a group of people who decide if someone is guilty in court
- trial
- a meeting in court where a judge or jury decides if someone broke the law
Level 2 — Elementary
Nine years ago, a car bomb killed Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia outside her home. She had been writing about corruption among powerful people in Malta, including possible links to government officials.
This week, wealthy businessman Yorgen Fenech finally went on trial for his role in her death. He is charged with helping to plan the murder. Fenech has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A jury of nine people, plus six backup jurors, was chosen after a long process behind closed doors. The trial is being held in Valletta, Malta's capital city.
The men who actually planted and detonated the bomb have already admitted guilt and are serving long prison sentences. Reporters from around the world, along with Caruana Galizia's husband and three sons, packed into the courtroom to watch the trial begin.
- assassination
- the murder of an important or well-known person, usually planned in advance
- charge
- an official statement that someone is accused of a crime
- detonate
- to cause a bomb or explosive to explode
- sentence
- the punishment given to someone found guilty of a crime
- capital city
- the city where a country's government is based
- official
- a person who holds a position of authority in government or an organization
- process
- a series of steps taken to achieve a result
- courtroom
- a room where legal trials take place
Level 3 — Intermediate
Nearly nine years after investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb outside her home in Bidnija, wealthy Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech has finally gone on trial for his alleged role in orchestrating her assassination. The 44-year-old pleaded not guilty on Wednesday as the jury trial opened before Judge Edwina Grima.
Fenech faces two main charges: complicity in the wilful homicide of Caruana Galizia, and criminal association for the purpose of committing a crime. A nine-member jury and six reserve jurors were empanelled after a five-hour selection process held behind closed doors.
Caruana Galizia, who had reported extensively on alleged corruption connected to the Panama Papers leak and figures close to Malta's government, was killed on October 16, 2017, when a bomb planted in her car detonated as she drove from her home. The hitmen and bomb suppliers involved in her murder, including brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat, have already pleaded guilty and are serving lengthy prison sentences.
The trial has drawn intense international scrutiny, with foreign journalists and representatives of press freedom organizations crowding into the Valletta courtroom alongside Caruana Galizia's husband and three sons. Prosecutors are expected to call Melvin Theuma, an alleged middleman between Fenech and the hitmen, as a key witness.
- orchestrate
- to plan and organize a complex event, often secretly
- complicity
- involvement with others in an illegal or wrongful act
- wilful homicide
- a legal term for intentional, planned killing of another person
- empanel
- to formally select and swear in a jury for a trial
- leak
- the release of secret information to the public, often without authorization
- scrutiny
- close and careful examination or observation
- press freedom
- the right of journalists to report news without government interference
- middleman
- a person who acts as a link between two parties in a deal or plan
Level 4 — Advanced
Nearly nine years after a car bomb ended the life of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on a rural road outside Bidnija, the jury trial of Yorgen Fenech, the businessman accused of masterminding her assassination, has finally commenced in Valletta, a proceeding whose long delay has itself become emblematic of Malta's fraught reckoning with institutional corruption.
Fenech, 44, entered a plea of not guilty to two charges: complicity in wilful homicide and criminal association for the purpose of committing a crime. Presiding over the case is Judge Edwina Grima, who previously oversaw two related trials stemming from the same assassination. A nine-member jury, supplemented by six reserve jurors, was empanelled following a five-hour selection process conducted behind closed doors, reflecting the extraordinary sensitivity surrounding a case that implicated figures at the highest levels of Maltese political and business life.
Caruana Galizia had built her reputation as a relentless chronicler of alleged graft, her reporting on the Panama Papers and associated offshore financial arrangements drawing the ire of officials and businessmen alike in the years preceding her death on October 16, 2017. The men who physically carried out the bombing, including the Degiorgio brothers and Vincent Muscat, along with the associates who supplied the explosive device, have already admitted their roles and are serving sentences ranging from fifteen years to life imprisonment.
The trial's opening drew a dense assembly of foreign correspondents and delegates from international press freedom organizations, seated alongside Caruana Galizia's husband and three sons. Prosecutors are expected to lean heavily on the testimony of Melvin Theuma, the self-described intermediary who allegedly brokered the arrangement between Fenech and the men who carried out the killing, and whose own cooperation with investigators has proven pivotal to the case reaching trial at all.
- emblematic
- serving as a typical or representative example of something
- reckoning
- a process of confronting and dealing with the consequences of past actions
- graft
- the use of one's position for dishonest financial gain, especially in politics
- offshore
- based or located outside one's own country, often for financial or legal advantage
- ire
- strong anger or resentment
- intermediary
- a person who acts as a link or go-between for other parties
- broker
- to negotiate or arrange a deal between other parties
- pivotal
- of crucial importance in relation to the development or success of something
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