A key witness in the trial of Yorgen Fenech — a Maltese hotel and property heir accused of commissioning the 2017 car-bomb assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia — told a Maltese jury that Fenech once texted to say he was "preparing champagne" in anticipation of the killing. Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver and self-described middleman who agreed to testify in exchange for a pardon, said Fenech paid €150,000 to three hitmen already convicted of carrying out the attack, and grew increasingly impatient as the operation was delayed. Caruana Galizia's exposés of senior Maltese politicians had shaken the government before her death; Fenech, who denies the charges, is on trial for complicity in her murder.