The investigation into the assassination in Malta of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia could bounce back in France. The national financial prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday (February 12th) that it had opened an investigation into one of the suspects, whose economic activities in France could have been used to bribe Maltese officials.

The family of this journalist and the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had filed a complaint on December 3, 2019 for "complicity in assassination" and "corruption", targeting in particular the businessman Yorgen Fenech, who possesses hotels and a stable of race horses in France.

The former chief of staff of the Maltese Prime Minister, Keith Schembri, and the former Minister of Tourism Konrad Mizzi are also affected by this complaint.

The complainants suspect that the income generated by these assets could have been used to bribe the two politicians in order to obtain a public market, a subject which the investigative journalist was investigating when she was murdered.

They also argue that the businessman's French investments could have been used to pay "the perpetrators of the car bomb attack that claimed the journalist's life on October 16, 2017".

Cooperation with the Maltese judicial authorities

Entrusted to the Central Office for the fight against corruption and financial and fiscal offenses, the investigations "will be carried out in a spirit of close cooperation and complementary investigation with the Maltese judicial authorities, seized of the facts of assassination", underlined the national financial parquet in its press release.

The affair splashed the Maltese government and forced Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to resign, accused of interfering and protecting his collaborators in the investigation.

Following investigations carried out in collaboration with Interpol and the United States' FBI, three men considered to be mere executioners are on trial. Yorgen Fenech has been charged with complicity.

While digging into the Maltese side of the Panama Papers, Daphne Caruana Galizia had revealed that a Dubai company, 17 Black, had paid 2 million euros to Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. The consortium of journalists Daphne Project, which resumed its investigations, revealed that the company was owned by Yorgen Fenech.

With AFP

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