A wealthy Maltese businessman accused of ordering the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia appeared in court on Wednesday, nearly nine years after her killing.

Yorgen Fenech, 44, is charged with complicity in the murder and criminal association. He has denied all wrongdoing and faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Prosecutors allege that Fenech instructed former taxi driver Melvin Theuma to recruit those responsible for carrying out the assassination. Theuma later confessed to acting as a middleman, saying he received €150,000 from Fenech. After being granted a pardon, he provided investigators with details of how the killing was planned and executed.

Caruana Galizia had been investigating alleged corruption linked to Fenech's company, including an offshore firm known as 17 Black, which was later revealed to be owned by him.

Three men convicted of carrying out the car bombing were arrested weeks after the attack. Two received life sentences, while a third was given a reduced sentence in exchange for cooperating with investigators. Two men convicted of supplying the bomb were also sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025.

According to prosecutors, the bomb was placed beneath Caruana Galizia's car seat after weeks of surveillance and detonated remotely from an offshore yacht. She died instantly.

Fenech was arrested aboard a yacht off the coast of Malta in late 2019 in what prosecutors described as an attempted escape. His trial was delayed for several years because of legal disputes over procedural matters.

The assassination triggered a political crisis in Malta that led to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in 2020, although he was never linked to the murder.

The trial is being heard before a jury and is expected to last several weeks.