Rosianne Cutajar accuses MEP Ana Gomes of hypocrisy for filing police report

Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar has said that a police report filed by Ana Gomes against her contradicted the MEP’s own “preaching’”on freedom of expression.

Earlier this week, the socialist MEP had asked the European Union’s law enforcement agency, Europol, to launch an investigation into a website which had published “fake news” against her, and into the slander which she said was subsequently spread by Cutajar on Twitter.

The website in question had alleged that Gomes had “murky ties to a global fraudster”, with Cutajar having uploaded a post to Twitter linking to the site.

In an official reply to Europol, Cutajar said Gomes’s complaint was frivolous and vexatious, and that she (Cutajar) was reserving the right to initiate proceedings against the MEP with regard to “false reports and abusive acts”.

Cutajar and Gomes engaged in an argument in a series of Tweets

“It is ironic that the same Ana Gomes who makes numerous allegations on Malta, relying on information by third parties, is now filing a criminal report against Maltese MP Rosianne Cutajar, simply because the latter referred to an online article linking Gomes to an alleged fraudster,” Cutajar said.

In a legal reply signed by lawyer and Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis, Cutajar insisted that all allegations made by Gomes in her complaint were unfounded. She said there was absolutely no relation between her and the website carrying the allegations against Gomes.

“Cutajar, who only got to know about Gomes’ report to Europol from the media. She had only mentioned the article in question and passed a fair political comment on Gomes as a public person, which is a fundamental right of every citizen in a democratic society,” the reply said.

The letter, addressed to Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle, pointed out that Gomes visited Malta a number of times to speak about freedom of expression, but on the other hand was trying to silence Cutajar from passing any comments.

Cutajar also said that the reference to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia by Gomes, in the complaint she had filed, was “out of context”.

Gomes had said that Cutajar’s spreading of the “fake news” on the website in question was “almost certaintly” prompted by the MEP’s “denunciation of the obstruction to justice in Malta in the fight against financial criminality and in the uncovering of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.”

Cutajar added that she condemned the journalist’s murder and said she agreed with the government’s stance of leaving no stone unturned in order to resolve the case.