Valletta (AFP)

Maltese police have released a businessman who was detained in the investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on Friday night, police sources told AFP.

Yorgen Fenech, arrested Wednesday on his yacht while trying to flee the archipelago, is officially considered a person with information on the case, although some media and the journalist's family present him as a possible sponsor murder.

Fenech, co-owner of a group active in hotels, energy and cars, is suspected of having paid to the chief of staff of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and a minister via a company in Dubai , on which the journalist murdered in 2017 wrote on her Running Commentary blog.

The suspect was intercepted following a promise of immunity by Labor Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to an intermediary in exchange for information about the murder's sponsor (s).

According to local law, the police have 48 hours to question a suspect, after which time he must release him or he must be charged. Once charged, he can not be questioned.

This influential businessman "was released on bail last night and then re-arrested this morning," police sources told AFP.

Joseph Muscat told local journalists on Friday that the police had been forced to arrest him because he was trying to leave the island at dawn. "The police would have preferred to finish their analysis (information) of the intermediary before making new arrests," Muscat told the press.

His new arrest will give them 48 more hours to continue their investigation. The police also want to question him about his possible links with money laundering and drug trafficking, according to sources interviewed by AFP.

Civil society groups, journalists and Daphne Caruana's family have criticized the lack of police press conferences and the fact that recent developments have been announced by the prime minister.

"It has no place near the investigation," said in a statement the family of the journalist, saying "ready to use all the legal means at its disposal to ensure an impartial and independent investigation and that is carried to completion ".

The intermediary behind the arrest, identified as Melvin Theuma, a 41-year-old taxi driver and usurer, was arrested last week. Friday, he was hospitalized for unspecified medical problems but his condition is not serious, according to Muscat. Security has however been strengthened around the hospital.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in the explosion of her car, trapped, on October 16, 2017. She revealed some of the darkest parts of Maltese politics, including Joseph Muscat, whom she accused of have made Malta a "mafia island".

Most of the investigation of this 53-year-old journalist was based on the Maltese part of the "Panama Papers" and in particular documents showing that Panamanian companies belonging to the Minister of Energy at the time (currently Tourism) Konrad Mizzi and Prime Minister Keith Schembri's chief of staff had received hundreds of thousands of euros from Black for unspecified services.

The Maltese Financial Intelligence Agency FIAU identified Mr Fenech as the owner of 17 Black. Eight months before her death, the journalist was writing about the firm, saying that she was connected to Maltese politicians.

© 2019 AFP