Energy tycoon arrest in journalist murder case

A European energy tycoon has been arrested as he attempted to leave the island of Malta in his yacht, just a day after a major break in the unsolved murder of an investigative journalist there.

Reuters sources say the arrest of Yorgen Fenech is part of the Daphne Caruana Galizia case, who was killed in a car bombing in 2017.

Judicial authorities haven't yet commented.

But on Tuesday (November 19) the government announced that it had arrested a seperate, unidentfied individual that they believe acted as a middleman between the suspected hitmen who killed Caruana Galizia -- who are already behind bars -- and the person who ordered her death, who is to date unknown and at large.

Yorgen Fenech is one of Malta's most prominent businessmen.

Among other projects he is the co-owner of a group that won a big government contract to build a power station in Malta six years ago.

His relationship to the journalist is that about eight months before the murder, she revealed the existence of a mysterious holding company in Dubai called 17 Black.

Caruana Galizia alleged that 17 Black was connected to several Maltese politicians, who she often accused of being corrupt.

A Reuters investigation after her death, in partnership with several other news outlets including the The Guardian, the Times of Malta, and France 2, showed that Fenech was the owner of 17 Black.

The unknown middleman who was arrested was apparently detained in connection to an unrelated Interpol probe into money laundering.

On Tuesday Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he wanted to pardon the middleman in exchange for more information on the mastermind of the murder.

Reuters has previously reported that two members of the prime minister's cabinet stood to make millions in payments off 17 Black, but found no evidence of money being deposited.

The cabinet members have long denied knowledge of any relationship to the Dubai company.