Karin Grech murder case is 'still open'

The case of the parcel-bomb murder of young Karin Grech 32 years ago, one of the biggest investigations undertaken by the Malta police, is still open, a judge heard yesterday.

Ms Grech was 15 when she was killed by a letter bomb addressed to her father, gynaecologist Edwin Grech, three days after Christmas.

Prof. Grech's family has instituted civil proceedings against the Prime Minister seeking compensation for the incident. Prof. Grech's son, Kevin, had also been injured in the blast.

Testifying in the civil suit, Police Commissioner John Rizzo said yesterday he was an officer at the time of the incident but only came into direct contact with the case 16 years later when, in 1996, he was asked by former Police Commissioner George Grech to form part of an investigative team assigned to the case.

He lived and breathed the case for three months as the team started from scratch and examined every possible avenue of investigation. They even sent the forensic evidence to England for re-examination because technology had made huge advances since the 1970s.

Mr Rizzo described the investigation as one of the biggest ever undertaken in the history of the police force.

The mainstream assumption about the motive behind the attempt was the fact that Prof. Grech, then head of obstetrics and gynaecology, kept working despite a strike by medical doctors and could have thus been considered as a strike breaker. In fact, a number of medical students in their final-year had been interviewed. While there had been a number of suspects among the students, none had been singled out and a lot of them had nothing but praise for Prof. Grech.

Some, who had re-located permanently abroad after their studies, could not be tracked down, he said.

Mr Rizzo said other leads had been followed, including some sort of revenge by patients who might have felt aggrieved in some way by Prof. Grech.

Mr Rizzo said another lead was related to a similar bomb placed outside the residence of Paul Chetcuti Caruana in Mosta and which failed to go off.

If this case were ever closed, he would be very happy, Mr Rizzo admitted.

The case was put off to May for final submissions.

Lawyer Alex Perici Calascione appeared for Prof. Grech.

Lawyer Peter Grech appeared for the Prime Minister.