Byron Camilleri does not say why he appointed Lawrence Cutajar consultant

Byron Camilleri did not say why he retained the former police commissioner as a consultant last January as he came under fire in parliament on Tuesday.

The Home Affairs Minister skirted questions by Nationalist MPs, including Opposition leader Adrian Delia, as to why he decided to retain Lawrence Cutajar after he resigned from police commissioner last January.

Camilleri insisted that with the benefit of hindsight he would have taken a different decision today.

Cutajar was placed under formal investigation on Monday after the magistrate hearing the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech asked the police commissioner to investigate him. Cutajar’s government consultancy was immediately terminated by Camilleri.

Court testimony showed that as police commissioner, Cutajar had tipped off middleman Melvin Theuma about investigations in his regard.

Camilleri said he was not aware of this information when making his decision to keep Cutajar as a consultant back in January.

The minister also denied having received a police briefing on the Caruana Galizia investigations during which Cutajar’s actions were flagged.

Camilleri insisted that the moment the court ordered the investigation he acted immediately to terminate the consultancy.

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