Updated 6.15pm

Yorgen Fenech was granted bail by a court on Friday, more than five years after he was first arrested and charged with complicity in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Madam Justice Edwina Grima issued the bail decree at a hearing on Friday morning. Members of his family, as well as one of Caruana Galizia's sisters, were in court at the time. 

After the judge exited the courtroom, Fenech was seen hugging family members in silence. 

Fenech's bail conditions

Fenech's aunt Moira Fenech is to serve as his guarantor, with her Tumas company shares - she holds 15.45% of the company - as collateral. He will only be released from prison once the court receives written confirmation that those shares have been provisionally transferred to the government. 

Once that is confirmed, Fenech must pay an €80,000 deposit and be bound by a €120,000 personal guarantee. 

Should he breach bail conditions, Moira Fenech will lose her share of the family business and Fenech will lose his deposit and guarantee money.

The unusual bail arrangements mean it will most likely be several days before Fenech is allowed out of Corradino Correctional Facility. 

The court ordered Fenech not to go within 50 metres of the coast or airport. He will have to sign a bail book at the St Julian’s police station every day and stay indoors between 5pm and 11am.  

He will be assigned a probation officer to supervise him and must only live at the address provided to the court. The judge did not read out that address, for security reasons. At an earlier court hearing, the Tumas group had told the court it could provide a property for him across the road from where his aunt lives. 

A police officer will be stationed outside his nominated residence for 24 hours a day. 

Fenech's passport and identification documents will be held by the court. 

He was also instructed not to communicate or approach in any way prosecution witnesses in the case against him, with the court specifically mentioning two such names - middleman Melvin Theuma and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

The court also issued a protection order for Caruana Galizia's relatives, effectively granting them court-ordered protection from being approached by Fenech.

Caruana Galizia family reaction

A businessman and heir to the Tumas empire, Fenech is pleading not guilty in the Caruana Galizia case as well as in a series of other, separate ones he has since been arraigned in. 

Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb close to her Bidnija home on October 16, 2017. Fenech was arrested and charged in connection with that crime in late 2019.

Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of the sons of the murder victim, said the prime minister and justice minister were to blame for the constant delays in the case. 

"They had five years to fix the system and did nothing. Failure after failure by the courts, it’s become increasingly clear who’s side they’re on. The side of criminals and not regular people," he wrote on Facebook. 

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation noted that "eight years on, justice for her murder has not been delivered. 

"The Maltese State failed to protect Daphne’s life and it is now failing her in death," the foundation said in its reaction to the bail decree. "The bomb that killed Daphne was a warning: the justice system is failing the victims of organised crime."

The Nationalist Party backed those statements, saying "justice delayed is justice denied". 

"The responsibility for what happened today does not lie with the Court but with Prime Minister Robert Abela and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, who have done absolutely nothing to prevent this situation," it said. 

So too did European Parliament President and PN MEP Roberta Metsola, who said the system was "designed to fail". 

In a reaction, the Justice Ministry said prosecutors at the Attorney General's office had objected to Fenech's bail requests. 

Criticism of the decision was "based on political arguments, with no basis in fact or logic," it said. 

The Labour Party said the PN's criticism of the court indicated it was being led by its "extremist faction". 

"The Nationalist Party has once again confirmed that its understanding of the rule of law is that of interfering in judicial processes," the party said. "It is only able to come up with deeply politically partisan comments when faced by independent court decisions." 

Fenech's push for bail

Fenech has filed multiple bail requests during his time in custody, all of which were turned down.

Last month he made a fresh bid for bail, arguing that he must be freed because more than 30 months had elapsed since a bill of indictment against him was issued.

By law, defendants are entitled to bail if that 30-month period elapses.

Prosecutors argued that the 30-month period has not elapsed in this case and that Fenech's defence team had intentionally added witnesses into the case to stretch out the case. 

They strongly objected to bail, citing their concerns about Fenech fleeing the country and tampering with evidence in the case against him if allowed out.

There was evidence of previous attempts to escape from the island that included enquiries on buying a house in Normandy and an urgent request for a private jet to Nice, they argued, noting that Fenech had tried to do those things before he faced a lifetime jail sentence.

Last week, Fenech faced new criminal charges in connection with the suspected leaking of confidential investigation information by the police’s former top anti-money laundering official.

But Fenech’s lawyers insisted that Fenech satisfied all bail prerequisites required by law and that their client had spent five years behind bars while presumed innocent, without ever causing any problems in prison.

In its decree on Friday, the court noted that Fenech’s aunt provided a “solid guarantee” – guarantees that were now solid enough to offer the court peace of mind.

It acknowledged “very serious” concerns that Fenech might abscond or tamper with evidence, but highlighted the length of time that had passed since he was arrested. That was in part due to delays in ongoing, related cases, the court said.

Fenech was represented in court by lawyers Charles Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran.