The Prime Minister laying a wreath at the memorial to Karin Grech yesterday. Photo: Chris Sant FournierNo stone will be left unturned to uncover the mastermind and the real perpetrator behind the letter bomb that killed 15-year-old Karin Grech 36 years ago, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
Describing her and Raymond Caruana as “victims of political intolerance” that existed in Malta in the 1970s and 1980s, Dr Muscat said the recent changes in the law protecting whistleblowers would hopefully pave the way for people to come forward with information for the perpetrators of these “cowardly acts” to face justice.
Dr Muscat was speaking last night in San Ġwann, at the foot of Ms Grech’s bust during the annual commemoration of the anniversary of her murder.
The teenager was killed on December 28, 1977 in the culmination of an industrial dispute between the doctors and the then Labour government when her father, Professor Edwin Grech, who had recently returned to Malta from the UK, took over the obstetrics ward at St Luke’s hospital.
The letter bomb, wrapped like a Christmas present, was addressed to Prof. Grech who had been deemed a strike breaker. As soon as Ms Grech handled it, it detonated and seriously injured her and her brother, then 10 years old. She succumbed to her injuries some time later.
Dr Muscat said he hoped that justice would be done with the Grech family and the families of all victims of political intolerance “not out of a sense of vindication but out of a sense of justice”.
Nothing could get Karin Grech back, he said, but her family and that of Mr Caruana, who was shot dead inside the Nationalist Party club in Gudja in 1986 at the height of political violence that reigned in Malta at the time, had the solace that these horrible deaths helped improve political tolerance in Malta.
The memorial service, which was followed by a Mass, was attended by Prof. Grech and members of the Grech family among others.