Fathi Shqaqi, the leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement, was gunned down outside his Sliema hotel 25 years ago.  

The front page headline of Times of Malta on October 27, 1999, read: ‘Libyan national gunned down in broad daylight’.

At that point, the Maltese police were relying on the false identification of ‘Ibrahim Ali Shawesh’ carried by the man whose bloodied corpse was sprawled outside Sliema’s Diplomat Hotel.

The grim realisation of what had actually taken place emerged two days later through a Reuters report from Lebanon which identified the victim as Fathi Shqaqi, leader of Islamic Jihad, one of the biggest militant groups fighting Israel.

The announcement rocked the Middle East and caused an explosion of protests throughout the Arab world, with warnings of retaliation against Israel.

“We tell the Zionists headed by the terrorist Rabin that this horrendous crime will make every Zionist wherever they are on the face of the earth a target to our amazing blasts and our bodies exploding in anger,” Islamic Jihad warned. 

Israel refused to confirm or deny its involvement.

Shqaqi was shot five times in the head before the assassin escaped on a motorcycle with an accomplice. They were never traced although the motorcycle was found in Manuel Dimech Street, Sliema.

Terrorism experts said that the shooting bore the hallmarks of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

Shqaqi had arrived in Malta on the ferry from Libya that morning. He was on a stop-over on his way to Damascus after having met then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli.

He travelled under the name Ibrahim Ali Shawesh and was returning to his hotel after buying clothes when the shooting took place.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told reporters that Shqaqi was the head of a terrorist murderous organisation that carried out murderous attacks against innocent civilians. “He had several enemies, he was in Libya, he supported Libya, its leaders and the expulsion of Palestinians from Libya. I imagine that he also had Palestinian enemies and if he was the man who was killed, I am certainly not sorry about it,” he told reporters.

Prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami made a statement in parliament the following Monday, saying the circumstances of the murder suggested this was a political assassination.

“We oppose and condemn all cases of violence and terrorism. We strongly object to anyone using our territory, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of violence or terrorism, and we are taking energetic measures to remove the possibility of any recurrence of such actions.”

Shqaqi’s funeral in Damascus was attended by some 400,000 people and there was an upsurge of violence in the Middle East in the following days.

How did the assassins flee Malta?

The murder also raised many questions in Malta. The most immediate, and one which was never solved, was how the assassins had escaped from Malta. Some claimed they escaped by motorboat to a waiting ship. But reports also surfaced that the two could have escaped on a private aircraft.

The same aircraft a few weeks later disappeared while on a flight from Djerba in Tunisia to Malta, leading to questions on whether Islamic Jihad had taken revenge on the pilot.

Journalist (now magistrate) Joe Mifsud, reported in his book Terror’s Footprints that two private flights left Malta to Djerba after the murder. The first, at 4.51pm, carried two passengers. The other, at 5.42pm carried 11.

Shqaqi’s murder had ramifications in relations between Malta and Libya and also between Islamic Jihad and Libya.

Islamic Jihad criticised Libya for having mishandled his trip and failed to provide security while also allowing his travel plans to be known.

Libya, unexpectedly, retaliated against Malta. First, there was a ‘spontaneous’ protest in front of the Maltese Embassy in Tripoli attended by a large group of people.

“Then the Libyan government suspended the ferry service operating between the two countries. Besides providing travellers to and from Libya with a relatively efficient travel service, it was also a source of revenue for the Maltese economy due to the spin-off activities generated by the transit of hundreds of passengers a week at a time when flights from Libya were banned,” Martin Bugelli, editor of Terror’s Footsteps, told Times of Malta.

The Libyan government never informed the Maltese government of Shqaqi’s high profile, and of the security risk which he posed.

“Not only had Libya repeatedly allowed a person presenting such a high-security risk to travel to Malta on a false passport, and without ever alerting the Maltese authorities, but they were now retaliating against Malta,” Bugelli said.

“Maybe this was intended to cover up the high probability that the false identity that Shqaqi was using, and his itinerary, had been leaked from Libyan sources since they were the only ones who were aware of it. Pointing a finger at Malta deviated attention from this betrayal.”

Assailants used British passports

Mifsud wrote that preparations for Shqaqi’s elimination started when the Israeli secret service managed to monitor calls at the Islamic Jihad refugee camp in Yaramouk, Damascus, where Shqaqi was based. A plan to blow up his apartment in Damascus was vetoed by Rabin and a plot was later hatched to intercept him in Malta, which he had transited several times.

The motorcycle was shipped to Malta from Greece via Italy while the two alleged assailants travelled from Israel separately via Athens and Rome, using British passports.

Shqaqi’s murder was the third most serious case of international terrorism involving Malta.

The most serious was the EgyptAir aircraft hijacking to Malta in November 1985 and subsequent attack by Egyptian forces, causing the death of 60 people.

The second was Malta’s association with bombing of a PanAm Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 259. The bomb reportedly started its journey from Malta wrapped in clothes bought from a shop in Sliema.

The paperback edition of Terror’s Footsteps is available from Kite Group’s bookstore or online.