Maltese minister quits after her husband – who was investigating assassination of prominent journalist – was revealed to have holidayed in Britain with murder’s alleged mastermind
- Justyne Caruana quit over husband Silvio Valletta’s links to Yorgen Fenech
- Valletta had been probing murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia
- He went to watch Chelsea and played in Rolls Royce of suspect Fenech
A Maltese government minister has resigned after her husband was revealed to have gone to a Chelsea match with a tycoon charged with plotting a journalist’s murder he had been investigating.
Justyne Caruana resigned on Monday after a video of her husband, Silvio Valletta – a former investigator into the murder – also emerged of him playing in tycoon Yorgen Fenech’s Rolls Royce.
Caruana – who was appointed to the government’s brand-new cabinet just last week – said in her resignation letter that she was quitting despite being ‘totally extraneous’ to the affair, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Her exit came after the Times of Malta revealed yesterday that her husband had been to a Chelsea match in London at Stamford Bridge with Fenech in September 2018.
Justyne Caruana (right) resigned on Monday after it emerged her husband, Silvio Valletta (left) – a former investigator into the murder – had holidayed in the UK with tycoon Yorgen Fenech
Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who has been accused of plotting the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, is pictured leaving the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, in November
They took a business class Air Malta flight to Heathrow Airport and watched Chelsea draw 1-1 with Liverpool from a private box. Fenech also took his children on the trip.
A witness who saw the pair said they heard the businessman say to his children as they boarded: ‘Hold Uncle Silvio’s hand’.
Fenech has since been charged with complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia who was killed in a car bomb in 2017 after she exposed high level corruption in the island state.
Valletta was deputy police commissioner at the time of her death.
He suspended himself from the case in June 2018 after a court upheld a claim by the slain reporter’s family that there was a conflict of interest, because of the investigator’s ties to a minister in a government Caruana Galizia had frequently targeted.
That ruling was appealed by the attorney general, but upheld by the country’s highest court in October 2018.
Caruana was sworn in on Wednesday as minister for the island of Gozo under Malta’s new leader Robert Abela.
She had held the same post under his predecessor, Joseph Muscat, who resigned over allegations he hampered the murder probe.
Valletta travelled to the UK with the tycoon after suspending himself from the case.
A video showing him in Fenech’s Rolls Royce was found on the businessman’s phone but it was not clear when it was taken.
Fenech was charged as an accomplice in the murder after being detained trying to leave the country on his yacht.
A woman holds a placard with a picture of murdered blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia during a recent protest demanding justice over her murder
His arrest in November sparked the resignation of Muscat’s chief of staff and the tourism minister, before claiming Muscat’s scalp as well.
Three men are on trial for allegedly detonating the bomb that killed the 53-year-old mother of three.
Valletta on Sunday admitted the holiday with Fenech, but said it only came once he had stepped aside from the case.
He said he paid for the flights himself, and he did not know Fenech was a suspect in the murder at the time.
‘I never did anything wrong and would certainly never have gone abroad with anyone who I suspected or knew to be under investigation’, Valletta, who retired from the police force in September, told journalists.
Malta’s home affairs minister said Valletta’s trip with Fenech will be investigated.