‘Yors & Rosianne’ WhatsApp chats reveal intimacy and gifts that dragged down MP

Yorgen Fenech, accused of masterminding Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder allegedly bought a Bulgari bag for former parliamentary secretary Rosianne Cutajar days before she downplayed 17 Black in the Council of Europe.

The incident goes back to 2019, before Fenech was eventually arrested and accused with being the mastermind in the journalist's assassination.

The raft of Whatsapp chats were made public by author and blogger Mark Camilleri on Tuesday just 24 hours before he faces Cutajar in court in a libel case the MP had filed against him. The chats suggest a very intimate relationship between Fenech and Cutajar as they flirt with each other.

Most of the information contained in the chats was already flagged in past reports dealing with Cutajar's conflict of interest as a result of her secretive intimate relationship with Fenech.

The detail concerning the luxurious Bulgari bag suggests that Fenech allegedly passed it on to Cutajar anonymously through her associate Charles Farrugia, known as it-Tikka.

Around a week later, Cutajar travelled to Strasbourg as a member of parliament to debate a resolution at the Council of Europe on the rule of law in Malta, particularly in the context of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

The report made specific reference to Yorgen Fenech and his several companies.

Cutajar had failed to disclose her conflict of interest in speaking out against the public inquiry into the Caruana Galizia assasination, at the same time in June 2019.

The Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly’s (PACE) committee on rules of procedure later voted in March 2022 to find a serious breach of its rules of conduct by Cutajar, when she failed to disclose the conflict.

Cutajar who is no longer a delegate to the PACE was accused of breaching ethics by Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt, for her close links with Yorgen Fenech when she used her seat at the Council of Europe to argue against the public inquiry.

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 Brussels).

The inquiry came on the back of reports in MaltaToday and the Times, that Cutajar had been promised a brokerage fee from the sale of an Mdina palazzo to Fenech, the man accused of having masterminded the assassination of Caruana Galizia.

The PACE committe had to decide whether Cutajar had a conflict of interest when signing amendments and speaking against the Omtzigt report in plenary, as well as to ask Cutajar to file her declarations of interest over the past three years.

Cutajar denied receiving money for her role as the broker in the sale of an Mdina home to Yorgen Fenech. She has since resigned her position as parliamentary secretary.

Standards Commissioner George Hyzler concluded in July 2022 that Cutajar breached ethics when she failed to declare brokerage fees she received from the deal in her parliamentary declaration. He also recommended that his findings be passed on to the Tax Commissioner for further investigation.