One of the three car-bomb explosions in 2016 has still not been registered as a homicide, as police are still unsure whether the explosive device had been planted in the victim’s car or he himself had transported it.

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela told Parliament on Monday that a man had been the victim of a bomb in his car that morning.

Investigations are still ongoing to establish whether the 2016 case was one of homicide or an unintended death.

In October of last year, businessman John Camilleri was killed by a powerful car bomb in a residential area of Bugibba.

Police sources confirmed that the improvised explosive device, which had blown the roof off the top of Mr Camilleri’s Pajero jeep, had been inside the vehicle when it went off.

This led investigators to believe that the bomb may have been transported in the vehicle and did not necessarily target Mr Camilleri. Sources said bombs were normally attached to the bottom of vehicles when the intent was to kill.

Mr Abela also told Parliament that four cases of homicide had been registered with the authorities last year. The victims were three Maltese, two women and a man, and a fourth foreign man.

Three of these cases had been solved, and in one, investigations were ongoing.

The Times of Malta yesterday reported how none of the car bomb explosions of recent years – including three in 2016, had been solved. Investigators are likely to face yet another brick wall as they try to discover who was behind the non-fatal car bomb in bustling Msida on Monday morning. The incident was the second of its kind in as many months.

Meanwhile, Minister Abela yesterday said additional resources would be made available to help the authorities deal with the threat to national security posed by organised crime rings.

Following a Cabinet meeting, Mr Abela said a number of additions had been made to the police force, most notably in the squad investigating bomb attacks.

In addition to this, legislative changes could be introduced to facilitate the police’s work. Mr Abela said that this would be done by studying which laws needed to be improved, especially those “hindering” investigations into organised crime.

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