Tumas Group Chairman Raymond Fenech said it is too early to tell whether Yorgen Fenech will return to an active role within the business group following his court acquittal last night.

“Yorgen Fenech must first decide what he wants to do with his life,” Mr Fenech said when contacted by WhosWho.mt.

“He has just passed through an extremely stressful period. We all followed the trial online but he lived through it – he had skin in the game. I think there are other tasks he needs to do now before thinking about what sort of work he will do in the future.”

The Tumas Group, one of Malta’s largest real estate and development firms, was set up in the 1970s by Yorgen Fenech’s grandfather Tumas Fenech.

It owns the Portomaso complex in St Julian’s, which was Malta’s tallest building for several years before it was overtaken by nearby Mercury.

Leadership of the group was later passed on to Tumas Fenech’s son George Fenech, and then to George Fenech’s son Yorgen Fenech.

Yorgen Fenech stepped down as Executive Director in 2019 in the wake of his initial arrest and was succeeded by his uncle Raymond Fenech.

He remains a minority shareholder.

Mr Fenech was last night acquitted of involvement in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, with jurors delivering an 8-1 not guilty verdict on both counts.

This brought an end to a 55-day trial, the longest trial by jury in Maltese history.