Labour president deflects questions on Cutajar’s trading in influence for Fenech’s gifts

Labour Party president Ramona Attard has refused to comment on what action the Labour Party will take over MP Rosianne Cutajar’s alleged trading in influence, in WhatsApp chats showing she earned cash and gifts from magnate Yorgen Fenech.

Attard was fielding questions from the press a day after WhatsApp chats seized from Yorgen Fenech’s mobile phone as part of evidence in the charges against him for masterminding the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, were published by Mark Camilleri, the former National Book Council chairman and writer.

Camilleri was fighting a defamation case filed by Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar over the contents of his book ‘A Rentseeker’s Paradise’, in which she claimed allegations about her were libellous.

Camilleri replied by publishing the entirety of WhatsApp chats between Cutajar and Fenech, showing a high level of intimacy between the MP and the business magnate, as well as clear suggestions that Cutajar could have traded her influence as MP for cash and gifts from the millionaire.

Ramona Attard however only condemned the publication of the chats, which form part of criminal evidence against Fenech, and followed the line set by prime minister Robert Abela who decried what he said was a ‘misogynistic’ backlash on the intimate chats.

Attard was repeatedly asked about what action the PL would take on the MP for allowing herself to be compromised in her discharge of duties, due to the influence she had traded with Fenech in return for cash and gifts.

But Attard refused to engage with the press. “This is a socialist government that has improved people’s lives, to the contrary of what the Nationalist Party did in its time in power... the PN taxed minimum wage,” the Labour president said, refusing to engage further on the questions.

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