The Labour Party said today that the decision by the Constitutional Appeals Court which upheld the decision of a lower court on compensation to the parents of letter bomb victim Karin Grech placed a burden of responsibility on the government.

The party said that the court had confirmed that the letter bomb which killed Karin Grech in December 1977 was a consequence of the service which her father, Edwin Grech, had been giving the government of the time during the doctors' strike.

(The government in its appeal said it was not contesting the compensation amount, but it was contesting the link made by the court between the letter bomb attack and the doctors' strike. In its judgement today, the court said that the fact that the government had already paid out the compensation ordered by the first court inferred that it agreed both with the amount and the reasoning of the court.)

The Labour Party recalled that it had been shocked when the government announced it would appeal the lower court's decision. It had described the government's decision as insensitive and offensive to all people of good will. It also reopened old wounds for the Grech family.

The constitutional court today showed that the government was wrong to deny that the Karin Grech tragedy was linked to the service given by Prof Grech, the PL said.

In having filed the appeal, the government had closed the door to all those who, over the years, had sought unity among the Maltese. The prime minister and his Cabinet now had to shoulder responsibility for their insensitivity, the party said.