The 11 heirs of Raymond Caruana who was shot dead at the Gudja Nationalist Party club 24 years ago have each received an extra €18,930 in compensation from the government, increasing the total amount paid to €398,318 from €190,000.

The compensation was raised because of a mechanism used recently by the courts to calculate the compensation due by the government to the family of Karin Grech, a 15-year-old girl killed in 1977 when she opened a letter bomb addressed to her gynaecologist father, who was considered to be a strike breaker during a doctor’s strike.

Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, replying to a parliamentary question on Wednesday, said the compensation to the 11 Caruana family members had been raised from €17,272 each.

Mr Caruana, 26, was shot dead on December 5, 1986, during a reception marking the opening of the PN club.

The weapon was allegedly fired by an individual taking part in a Labour Party carcade, who aimed his submachine gun at the club façade. Thirteen shots were fired at the club from a passing car, shattering a glass door and killing Mr Caruana. No one was ever convicted of the murder.

The heirs of both the Caruana and Grech families had both been offered €200,000 in compensation, paid out of a fund for victims of crime. The sum was worked out on the basis of a formula drawn up by the Attorney General’s office.

The Caruana family had accepted the sum but the Grechs decided to appeal and, in December, a court ordered the government to raise it to €419,000.

The court ruled the government discriminated against the Grech family by not granting them ex gratia compensation extended to other victims of lesser crimes.

While announcing it would appeal the court’s judgment where it referred to discrimination against the Grech family, the government said it accepted to pay the amount and, in the same way, would increase the original sum paid out to the Caruana family.