UPDATE 3-Malta government rejects immunity bid by businessman in journalist murder

The Malta government turned down a request from one of the island's richest men on Friday for a pardon in return for his cooperation in the investigation into a journalist's murder, after freeing a top official he was said to implicate. After two years of stalled investigations, the authorities have moved rapidly in recent days in the case of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was blown up with a car bomb in 2017 while working on reports about official corruption.

Her family responded with fury to the decision overnight to set free Keith Schembri, who quit this week as chief of staff to prime minister Joseph Muscat after being arrested in the case. After a cabinet meeting that ended shortly before 3:00 a.m., Muscat's government decided to reject a request for immunity by Yorgen Fenech, a businessman who was arrested last week while trying to leave Malta on his yacht.

In a separate case showing how corruption allegations have closed in on the government, a court-ordered three cabinet ministers on Friday to face a criminal probe over a hospital contract. Two of the ministers had already left the cabinet this week over links to Fenech as the murder case unfolded. Three men have been awaiting trial for setting the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia, but so far the authorities have failed to track down the person who hired them.

The arrest this week of Schembri, the prime minister's right-hand man, has entangled top officials in the case, and Caruana Galizia's family accuses the government of a cover-up. Angry supporters of the family gathered outside the cabinet meeting in the early hours of the morning. As one minister was driven away, one of Caruana Galizia's sons hurled fruit at his car and shouted obscenities.

COVER UP The investigation focuses on Fenech, a businessman whose empire included property, retail, hospitality, gambling, and energy companies. He handed the business reins to his brother a day before attempting to leave Malta on his yacht.

On Thursday night Fenech turned up at the Malta courts under heavy police escort to file a constitutional application asking President George Vella to decide his pardon request, and not the cabinet, because of conflict of interest. In the letter to the president, Fenech's lawyers said their client was prepared to give information involving Schembri and two cabinet ministers: Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and Economy Minister Chris Cardona. Mizzi resigned on Tuesday and Cardona has 'suspended himself' from his duties. Both deny wrongdoing.

In the separate hospital case, Judge Edwina Grima ordered a criminal investigation into Mizzi, Cardona and Finance Minister Edward Scicluna over the granting of a contract to Vitals Global Healthcare to run three state hospitals. Opposition politicians and campaigners who had pressed for the inquiry say the company was unqualified. The company and the officials deny wrongdoing. In the murder case, Malta police announced on Thursday night that Schembri had been released and was no longer considered as a person of interest in the investigation.

Muscat said the attorney general and the police had advised the government there were no grounds to pardon Fenech. Civil society groups and the opposition have called for Muscat to step down, saying he has protected his allies implicated in the investigation. Muscat has refused to quit.

"I will not abdicate my responsibilities. Malta needs stable leadership and I will continue to take decisions in the interests of the country and will not protect anyone," he said. Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of the murdered journalist's sons, said that a cover-up was in the making and his family was being kept in the dark about developments in the case.

Dunja Mijatovic, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, said she was "seriously concerned by recent allegations of political interference in the investigation" and called on Muscat to prevent the appearance of collusion. The murder investigation has moved rapidly since a middleman suspected of introducing the killers to the person who hired them was arrested two weeks ago and granted immunity in return for testimony. Within days, police had arrested Fenech.

Before she was killed, Caruana Galizia had revealed the existence of a secret offshore company called 17 Black. A Reuters investigation last year revealed Fenech was the owner of the company, named in emails as a vehicle to fund secret Panama companies owned by Schembri and Mizzi. There is no evidence that money changed hands and Mizzi has said there are no links between him and Fenech's company. Cardona has also denied involvement.

One of Fenech's companies formed part of a consortium that was awarded a government contract in 2015 to build a power station. Other partners in that consortium included SOCAR of Azerbaijan and Siemens. Siemens and SOCAR have both denied their staff was involved in wrongdoing. Since Fenech's arrest, Siemens has said it tried to remove him from the board of the joint venture.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)