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Malta Arrests Businessman as ‘Person of Interest’ in Journalist’s Killing

Yorgen Fenech was detained aboard his yacht as he tried to leave the country, local reports said. Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed after accusing his businesses of links to corruption.

A makeshift memorial to the assassinated anticorruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Valletta, Malta, on Saturday.Credit...Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

The authorities in Malta arrested a prominent businessman on Wednesday in connection with the killing of the country’s best-known investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had accused companies and politicians tied to him of corruption.

The businessman, Yorgen Fenech, was detained on his yacht just after it left port, as he tried to leave the country, local news outlets reported. The arrest is the biggest development in almost two years since the killing of Ms. Caruana Galizia, a case that had appeared to be stalled. Her family and friends have said that the government has no interest in solving it.

The police declined to comment about the arrest, but Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed to reporters that Mr. Fenech had been detained in connection with the murder case.

The announcement came a day after another man suspected of being a go-between in the killing was arrested, but it was not clear how, or whether, the two arrests were linked. Mr. Muscat had offered clemency to the man arrested on Tuesday — his name was not released — if he would identify the person who had ordered the killing.

Ms. Caruana Galizia, 53, was killed in a car bombing on Oct. 16, 2017, after years of making enemies of many of the most powerful people in a nation that has become known for smuggling and money laundering. Her reports were often described as flimsy and reckless, but she uncovered and drew attention to multiple scandals.

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Yorgen FenechCredit...Reuters

Mr. Fenech leads his family’s business, the Tumas Group, which owns hotels, casinos and commercial real estate. He is also a major investor in a shipping terminal and an energy company, Electro Gas Malta, a favorite target of Ms. Caruana Galizia’s.

While the company was trying to arrange financing to build a major power plant, she said the government’s backing for the project was tainted by corruption. The Daphne Project, a consortium of journalists and news organizations committed to continuing her work, reported that a natural gas deal related to the project could cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

In the last months of her life, Ms. Caruana Galizia had also focused on a mysterious company called 17 Black. After she was killed, it was revealed that 17 Black had arranged to make payments from a bank account in Dubai to Panama companies owned by high-ranking officials in Mr. Muscat’s government.

Last year, a leaked government investigative report revealed who owned 17 Black: Mr. Fenech.

Six weeks after Ms. Caruana Galizia was killed, the Maltese authorities arrested 10 people in the case, but only three were charged, and none have stood trial.

Richard Pérez-Peña, the International News Editor in London, has been with The Times since 1992. His beats have included higher education, the newspaper and magazine industry, health care, government and politics, transportation and courts. More about Richard Pérez-Peña

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Malta Arrests Businessman in Case of Journalist’s Killing. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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