Letters to the editor - January 6, 2026

Punishment for heinous crimes

John Attard Montalto of Sliema writes:

The attempt to kill Edwin Grech was a stain which will never be forgotten, especially as his innocent daughter was the victim of such a heinous crime.

In such cases, I believe in the ultimate punishment, which has been removed from our laws because the death penalty is no longer part of our laws and cannot be entertained constitutionally and by our achievement of becoming an EU member.

But there is an alternative, another substitute which is perhaps worse than death. In America, the worst criminals - national and international - are put in solitary confinement and let out for one hour a day.

In such situations, the Americans put the fashionable word ‘correctness’ aside and apprehend those having no conscience or respect for other human beings.

I know this comment is controversial but there are those who do not deserve better (the Bondi Beach massacre falls in this category).

A memorial to Karin Grech in San Ġwann. The 15-year-old was killed by a letter bomb addressed to her father in 1977.

The mystery is that no one has been prosecuted, neither the perpetrator nor the accomplice/s who killed Karin Grech. At times, I have doubts whether they could have been apprehended. Were they being protected by dark forces?

We have ended up by protecting the villains at the expense of the victims.

What if my or your daughter or someone very close to us had suffered such a terrible end?

Would we have taken the law in our own hands? In my case, I sincerely cannot say. Perhaps ‘an eye for an eye’ is correct? Or is it?

What is the only solution for closure? Who knows?

Does one think that, when law and order deteriorate, the families of victims like Karin Grech and Daphne Caruana Galizia will ever be able to live a life after such devastation?

What is the use of monuments, naming hospitals, halls, public squares, roads and gardens after such victims when the real killers may be still at large? Remembrance and respect may be enough for some but for others it may consist of rubbing salt in the wounds.