Raymond Caruana (9 May 1960 – 5 December 1986) was a

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

political activist affiliated with the Nationalist Party (PN). Caruana was murdered in a

drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrators to quickly strike their targets and flee the scene before l ...

at a PN club in

Gudja Gudja is a village in the Southern Region, Malta, Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 3,148 as of March 2017. The village is located on high grounds, south of the capital Valletta. It is administered by the Gudja Local Council. A numb ...

Murder

While Caruana was at the PN club in Gudja, a land rover driven by

Malta Labour Party The Labour Party (, PL), formerly known as the Malta Labour Party (, MLP), is the oldest List of political parties in Malta, political party in Malta, and one of the two major parties alongside the Nationalist Party (Malta), Nationalist Party. ...

thugs drove past the club firing several shots. One bullet hit him in the throat, killing him. Peter Paul Busuttil was accused of the murder; however, in the Maltese Law Courts, it later transpired that Busuttil had been the victim of a frame-up orchestrated by thugs from the ruling Labour Party with the aid of corrupt police officers. The case is still unsolved to the present day. During the December 1986 TV transmission of the budget debates in Parliament, Wistin Abela assaulted

Eddie Fenech Adami Edoardo "Eddie" Fenech Adami (born 7 February 1934) is a Malta, Maltese and Nationalist Party (Malta), Nationalist politician who served as the prime minister of Malta from 1987 until 1996, and again from 1998 until 2004. Subsequently, he was t ...

when the latter brought up the shooting of Raymond Caruana.

Suspects

Later investigations carried out under a new Nationalist administration identified Nicholas Ellul (''iċ-Ċaqwes''), as the owner of the

Sterling submachine gun The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun (SMG). It was tested by the British Army in 1944–1945, but did not start to replace the Sten until 1953. A successful and reliable design, it remained standard issue in the British Army ...

used in the shooting, and in 1990 was charged with Caruana’s murder. He was never arraigned because he died from an overdose in 2001. In 1997, Ġanni Psaila (''il-Pupa''), a former Labour Party thug testified in court that his former buddy and fellow thug, Karmenu Farrugia (''il-Botom'') had opened fire at the PN club in

Tarxien Tarxien ( ) is a town in the Port region of Malta, seat of the Port Regional Council. Its population stood at 8,583 in March 2014. The town is most notable for the Tarxien Temples, a megalithic temple complex which is among the oldest freestan ...

. This was a separate but related incident which happened four days prior to the murder of Raymond Caruana; since a later investigation established that the shots fired at the PN club in Tarxien, came from the same submachine gun used to shoot at the PN club in Gudja. Farrugia denied the allegation. Ten months later, at dawn of 26 November 1997 of that same year, Psaila died after falling from a building shaft while supposedly robbing a bar in Birzebbuga. Anthony Carabott (It-Toto), Edwin Bartolo (il-Qaħbu) and Michael Spiteri (il-Qattus) were also investigated, but the allegations against them were never substantiated. Carabott who has maintained his innocence throughout the years, in 2015 stated he was only named as a suspect because he was the owner of the Land Rover which was driven during the murder.

Murder

Suspects

See also

References

Further reading