New arrest in journalist murder, may be pardoned

Authorities in Malta say they've arrested a new suspect in the unsolved murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

But just as soon as news of the arrest broke, the prime minister announced that he wants to pardon the person -- who has not been publicly identified -- in exchange for more information.

It's because, they say, while police have had the suspected hitmen under arrest for years, they still don't know who ordered the killing or why.

And the new arrest revealed on Tuesday (November 19) is believed to be the middleman between the killers and the mastermind.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bombing in 2017. She was an independent and influential writer.

She also had many enemies, especially among the political and financial elite - including the prime minister himself and his inner circle - who she accused of corruption in much of her reporting.

A few months after her death, three men said be known organized crime figures were arrested on the docks outside the capital, and accused of being the ones who made bomb, planted the bomb, and detonated it.

But no clear motive has ever been established for the men.

Authorities say the new suspect was part of a group of people arrested during an Interpol money laundering sting last week.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says the decision to offer a pardon was difficult, and that it will only be done if the suspect gives full cooperation to investigators.