Edwin Grech says he is “absolutely” not satisfied with the way the police are handling the letter bomb murder of his daughter, Karin, 34 years ago.

Prof. Grech said on television on Thursday he passed on fresh information about the case to the police but admitted yesterday he did not think the police were committed in investigating the case.

The police insist they are doing their utmost and investigating all new leads.

The parcel had been delivered to Prof. Grech’s home by normal mail on December 28, 1977. The 15-year-old girl opened the large brown envelope addressed to her father thinking it was a Christmas present. It exploded in her hands and she died some time later in hospital.

At the time, Prof. Grech was considered by the medical profession to be a strike breaker in the long-drawn dispute between the Labour government and the Medical Association of Malta.

Prof. Grech says he has information that the explosive device had been planned by fourth- and fifth-year medical students who hired a criminal to make the bomb that was then delivered by a carpenter with missing fingers.

He complains that the police are not updating him about their investigations and are not giving the case due attention either.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo told Net TV, where Prof. Grech spoke of the fresh information he had, that any new leads into the case were investigated. Mr Rizzo also pledged that the police would head straight to court should they have the slightest proof in hand.

Asked about this, Prof. Grech insisted yesterday he was “absolutely” not satisfied with the way the police were handling the matter.

“At the moment I prefer not to say anything (about the case). The situation is very hot. I brought everything out into the open (through the programme Evidenza) to let the people who should be doing something to continue to do something and also to let the people (public) know what is happening,” he said.

“I pray to God that something comes out of this,” Prof. Grech said.

Former police officer Charles Demicoli, who had investigated the case for several years, believes the crime was the work of one person and he suspects it was a medical student. The main reason why the crime had not been solved, he insists, is because that person never spoke up.

However, Prof. Grech believes the case remains unsolved because of political involvement. He spoke of a “hidden hand holding information” and said he had little hope the case would be solved. He felt abandoned by the police.

“True, we should move forward but we shouldn’t leave these cancers to fester,” he added.

He said the medical students he suspected were the masterminds were never interviewed by the police.

Police Inspector Chris Pullicino, who is now handling the case, said in 2008 that the investigation was concentrated on a group of people who were final-year medical students at the time of the crime.

Sources said police spoke to several former medical students since then but did not have anything solid in hand.