Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1409324
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 SEPTEMBER 2021 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA THE Labour MP Rosianne Cuta- jar has been invited to be heard before the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly's com- mittee on rule of procedures and immunities, for a second time. Cutajar is accused of a breach of the PACE code of conduct for MPs, over her dealings with Tu- mas magnate Yorgen Fenech in her role as a broker for the pur- chase of an Mdina property val- ued at €3.1 million. The PACE is an assembly of national parliaments' MPs from all member states of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (not the European Parliament in Brus- sels). Cutajar had not responded to the committee's invitation to be heard. The committee has now invited her for a second and last time to be heard at a next meet- ing at the end of September. Cutajar has however sent a letter to the committee, the contents of which are as yet unknown. The committee said that it had taken note of the latter, noted that she had not responded to the invita- tion to be heard, and was inviting her for a second hearing. The Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt, a rapporteur PACE on rule of law in Malta, requested the inquiry into Cutajar over statements she made in defence of Tumas mag- nate Yorgen Fenech inside the assembly. The complaint comes on the back of reports in MaltaTo- day and the Times that Cuta- jar had been promised a bro- kerage fee from the sale of an Mdina palazzo to Fenech, the man accused of having mas- terminded the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The inquiry is as to wheth- er Cutajar had a conflict of in- terest when signing amendments and speaking against the Omtzigt report in plenary, as well as to ask Cutajar to file her declara- tions of interest over the past three years. "Cutajar has not filed a sin- gle declaration of interest in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe by 15 April 2021. Neither did she make any oral statement drawing atten- tion to her links with Mr Fenech. Under paragraph 7, 8 and 9 of the rules of conduct in the code of the conducts she should have made such a declaration in the case of a potential or actual con- flict of interest or even better, she should have tried to resolve this conflict of interest before the de- bate," Omtzigt said. Cutajar has denied receiving money for her role as the bro- ker in the sale of an Mdina home to Yorgen Fenech. She has since resigned her position as parlia- mentary secretary. The promise-of-sale agreement was signed on 14 May 2019. The vendor, Joseph Camilleri, paid some €44,500 in fees to Cuta- jar and associate Charles Farru- gia, who she later appointed to her private secretariat. When the deal fell through, Camilleri de- manded the money back. Yorgen Fenech had already visited the property together with Rosianne Cutajar, who was then an MP, and her close friend Charlie Farrugia 'it-Tikka', who became Cutajar's political aide after she was appointed a junior minister in February 2020. Their viewings of the Triq is-Salvatur house are a crucial fact, because Cuta- jar and Farrugia are said to have claimed for themselves a finder's fee of €50,000 each. Omtzigt has pointed out that lat- er in June 2019, during the debate about his report "Daphne Carua- na Galizia's assassination and the rule of law in Malta and beyond: ensuring that the whole truth emerges", Cutajar made a power- ful speech against his report and tabled a number of amendments trying to weaken the report. Among other things she explic- itly stated: "For example, para- graph 3 of the draft resolution makes conclusions and criticisms about eight different cases. None of these eight cases are the Gali- zia case." Caruana Galizia had written extensively on the Electrogas Af- fair, the Panama Papers and on 17 Black – all having a deep connection to Fenech, a share- holder in Electrogas whose se- cret Dubai company 17 Black is suspected of having been de- signed to channel funds to the secret Panama companies owned by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Rosianne Cutajar called to appear in PACE inquiry