The daughter of Ġiġa Camilleri has, for the first time publicly, claimed that her parents were wrongly convicted over the 1960 murder of eight-year-old Twannie Aquilina, describing the case as a grave miscarriage of justice built on weak evidence and coerced testimony.

Speaking in a rare interview on Campus FM with Andrew Azzopardi, Marthese Camilleri said she had chosen to remain anonymous for years because of the stigma still attached to her family name.

"There was no evidence against my parents. No fingerprints, no nail clippings, nothing," she said, insisting that both Ġiġa Camilleri and her husband, Leli Camilleri, had been framed.

The killing of Twannie Aquilina remains one of Malta's most controversial criminal cases. The boy was found dead in the family's Valletta home in 1960, his throat slit, in a crime that shocked the country and attracted intense media attention.

His mother and father were later found guilty after a 17-day trial in 1961. The jury took just two hours to deliver its verdict. Ġiġa Camilleri was sentenced to death by hanging, becoming the first woman in more than a decade to receive such a sentence, before it was later commuted to life imprisonment following a public petition signed by nearly 100 lawyers.

She was released after serving 10 years in prison and maintained her innocence until her death.

In the radio interview, Marthese Camilleri said key elements of the case had long been overlooked. She claimed that Twannie had been sexually assaulted before he was murdered, arguing that this crucial detail was often ignored.

"It couldn't have been my mother for sure," she said.

She also said her father always believed that the real killer was never identified because investigators were determined to pin the blame on someone.

Camilleri further criticised the prosecution's reliance on testimony given by her sister, Carmen, who was just seven years old at the time.

According to Marthese Camilleri, her sister had been coached by lawyers before appearing in court.

"She was told exactly what to say," she claimed.

She added that, years later, Carmen publicly admitted she had not actually witnessed her parents killing Twannie.

Questions over the strength of the evidence have continued to surround the case for decades.

Journalist Fabian Demicoli, who has extensively investigated the murder, has argued that the conviction rested more on circumstantial evidence and public perception than on hard proof. Among the inconsistencies he highlighted was a nail clipping found in the victim's underwear that did not match either parent.

Law student Omar Rababah, who has also researched the case in recent years, said the file remains filled with doubts that raise serious questions about the guilty verdict.

Marthese Camilleri said her father had long believed that modern DNA testing could have exonerated both parents.

Now 67, she spoke of the lifelong stigma the case imposed on her, saying she grew up being known simply as "Ġiġa's daughter".

She recalled being bullied at school and claimed that even authority figures encouraged other children to target her because of her mother's notoriety.

Visits to her parents in prison, she said, were equally traumatic, with strict rules preventing any physical contact.

Addressing allegations raised during the original trial that Twannie had been burned with cigarettes, Camilleri said the incident happened only once and was carried out by her father as a harsh punishment after the boy stole money.