The unsolved murder of Fathi Shqaqi

Fathi Shqaqi was the leader and founder of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. On 26 October 1995, he was shot six times in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema by an unknown motorcyclist and died instantly.

In 1990, the number-plates of a Yamaha motorcycle were stolen from a San Gwann resident. From examinations of the abandoned vehicle, the police realized that the number-plates must have been modified to fit onto the motorcycle that was brought to Malta and used by the assailants. The petrol found inside the motorcycle’s tank was also bought from a foreign country. Since the motorcycle was brought to Malta on the 12 August 1995, this means that it hadn’t been used much in the two months prior to the murder.

Only two people should have known that Shqaqi had arrived in Malta, a Libyan man responsible for his voyage and hotel bookings and a Maltese man who chauffeured him from the port. When questioned, both men claimed to have had no idea about the victim’s true identity.

Police still don’t know how the motorcyclists left the island. International reports alleged that they departed on a Piper Lance aircraft owned by Carmelo Bartolo. Whether Bartolo was directly involved in the case or not remains unclear. However, this same aeroplane disappeared on the 3 December 1995 during a flight between Malta and Djerba, Tunisia with Bartolo and five other passengers on board. The next year, un-named Tunisian fishermen found some of the plane’s remains.

Irish author Don Mullan has three possible theories to account for the plane’s disappearance. The first is that Bartolo had decided to make the flight from Djerba to Malta despite the plane’s system already being damaged in some way. The second is that Fundamental Islamists abducted Bartolo and the passengers. The third is that Fundamental Islamists wanted to seek revenge on Bartolo. The case remains unsolved.

Read the full report in today's edition of Illum.