Cutajar given final chance to appear before CoE assembly

Former Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar has been given a second and final chance to appear before the Council of Europe to answer questions on alleged breach of MPs’ ethics.

Cutajar had already been summoned to appear before the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly. While it is understood that she had written back to the committee, she did not respond to a request to appear in person.

She is accused of breaching ethics when she derided a report by Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt, in which he had referred to Yorgen Fenech and 17 Black. The complaint came after revelations that Cutajar was involved in a failed property deal with Fenech, raising the prospect of a conflict of interest.

Cutajar, one of three Maltese MPs in the assembly, was invited to appear before the committee to defend herself but failed to do so. On Wednesday, the committee decided to give Cutajar a second and final chance to appear before it. It is scheduled to meet again towards the end of this month.

The former Qormi mayor, who stepped down from her Cabinet post in February of this year, has also been investigated by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler, and is subject to a tax probe. It is alleged that she helped broker a deal between Fenech and the owner of a €1.3m Mdina property. The deal fell through after Fenech’s arrest in 2019, in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The seller is trying to recoup some €90,000 he says he paid to Cutajar and her associate Charles Farrugia ‘it-Tikka’. Cutajar is also alleged to have received some €9,000 in cash from Yorgen Fenech. She denies the claims.