Updated | Muscat calls for greater justice with Karin Grech's family

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said that the political deaths of Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana paved the way for greater political tolerance in Malta.

"Nothing could get back Karin Grech or other fallen martyrs but it is of solace to her family that their sacrifice and plight served to improve political tolerance in Malta," the Prime Minister said during a memorial service in remembrance of Karin Grech.

15-year-old Karin Grech was accidentally killed by a letter bomb 36 years ago.

Karin Grech was killed at the height of an industrial dispute between the doctors and the then Labour government when her father, Professor Edwin Grech - deemed a strike-breaker during the industrial dispute between the then Labour government and doctors - had returned to Malta from the United Kingdom to take up the role of head of obstetrics at St Luke's Hospital.

Talking on the eve of the 36th anniversary of her death, Joseph Muscat said he hoped that justice be done with the family of Karin Grech and all victims of political intolerance.

"No stone should be left unturned to uncover the real perpetrator behind the cowardly killing of Karin Grech. It is not a sense of vindication but a sense of justice," Muscat stressed.

Addressed to her father, the bomb was delivered by post in a parcel wrapped like a Christmas present.

The bomb instantly detonated in the teenager's hands seriously injuring her and her ten-year-old brother, Kevin. While her brother recovered from his injuries, Karin Grech succumbed to her injuries shortly after in hospital.

36 years later the murder remains unresolved and the perpetrator has never been caught. To this day, Edwin Grech holds on to the hope that one day, the case will be solved and justice will be served.

Grech had only returned to Malta just six months before the killing of his daughter.

In November 2010, a decree by the First Hall of the Civil Court had ordered the government of Malta to pay €419,287 in compensation to the Grech family. Magistrate Raymond Pace had argued that the murder of Karin Grech was politically motivated due to her father's role in the doctors' strike.

 An Appeals' Court had later upheld the decision.

 The accidental murder of 15-year-old Karin Grech occurred at the height of the doctors' strike that was triggered when the government amended legislation governing medical licensing. The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) ordered a partial medical strike, and the Labour government ordered a hospital lockout of strikers.

Meanwhile, in December 2011, Edwin Grech had claimed that a group of medical graduates and members of the MAM had formulated a plan to kill him by a letter bomb. Grech had also argued that a source - a carpenter by trade - informed him that it was another carpenter who delivered the parcel to the post office, evidenced by his missing fingers and the palmprint resulting on the envelope in which the bomb had been inserted.

Another letter bomb had been delivered to former MP Paul Chetcuti-Caruana, which however did not explode.