The hearing of the constitutional application filed by Professor Edwin Grech and his family against the Prime Minister, filed 30 years after the death of his daughter Karin, was put off for February in order to allow the two parties to reach an agreement.

The case was filed by Prof. Edwin Grech, his wife Pearl and his son Kevin against the Prime Minister and is being heard by Mr Justice Raymond Pace in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

In his protest, Prof. Grech said that his family’s fundamental right to freedom from discrimination was violated because the government did not make an ex gratia payment following the death of their 15-year-old daughter Karin that took place 30 years ago.

His daughter died on 28 December 1977 when she opened an envelope that was addressed to her father and that contained explosives.

Furthermore, the Grech family claimed in the application that the investigations into their daughter’s death had not been carried out in good faith.

However, in his reply, the Prime Minister said that, while he understood the frustration that the Grech family were feeling because of the lack of positive outcome in the investigations, he felt that they should not have filed their complaint against him.

In his reply, the prime minister said that the Grech family were claiming abuse of administrative power and should have made use of other means available instead of filing a constitutional application.

Furthermore, he said that he, and the Office of the Prime Minister, were not responsible for the administration of any scheme to pay compensation to crime victims.

The prime minister also denied the allegations that the investigations were not made in good faith and pointed out that these are still ongoing and included a number of extraordinary measures such as bringing a team of Scotland Yard investigators to Malta.

He also added that since the crime had not yet been solved, obviously it is not possible to reach any conclusions about the motive behind the crime.

The prime minister denied that the Grech family were not discriminated against and that the government had not refused to grant them any compensation.

Dr Emmanuel Mallia and Dr Alex Perici Calascione appeared for the Grech family while Dr Peter Grech and Dr Cynthia Scerri Debono were counsel to the prime minister.