PN says Abela ‘blackmailed’ into not taking action against Rosianne Cutajar

MP Mark Anthony Sammut slams lack of police action over clear evidence suggesting ‘bribery, money laundering, and influence peddling’

The Nationalist Party has said Robert Abela is being “blackmailed” into not taking any action against MP Rosianne Cutajar.

“What does Rosianne Cutajar know about the potentially illegal financing of the PL?,” MP Mark Anthony Sammut said on Thursday afternoon.

A raft of Whatsapp chats were made public by author and blogger Mark Camilleri on Tuesday just 24 hours before he was supposed to face Cutajar in court in a libel case the MP had filed against him. 

The chats, suggesting a very intimate relationship between Fenech and Cutajar, were made between June and September 2019. At the same time, Cutajar was publicly dismissing calls for investigations into suspected corruption linked to Fenech.

“The government has institutionalised greed,” Sammut said.  

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister said he would not be taking any action against Cutajar, as she had already “paid the ultimate political price” when resigning as junior minister for equality in 2021.

“The prime minister is without a doubt being blackmailed because there is no logical reason why Rosianne Cutajar was allowed to run in the last (general) election when the facts in the chats were known; and in continuing to defend her now after the publication of the chats,” he said.

The MP also slammed the lack of police action years after getting their hands on “evidence” suggesting bribery, money laundering, and influence peddling. 

He claimed that Abela is still defending Cutajar despite using her position as a Council of Europe member to protect Fenech while misleading the standards commissioner about her participation in the contentious property transaction. 

MP Claudette Buttigieg stated that the conversations revealed a clear and strong relationship between the Labour Party and Fenech, at a time when he was already recognised as the owner of 17 Black, the secret Dubai-registered firm that was allegedly a vehicle for corrupt action.

She said that some intimate details revealed in the conversation may have been unnecessary, saying that what people did in their bedrooms was up to them.

“If they are of that level, it's their choice," she said.

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