Repubblika call for Rosianne Cutajar's resignation

Civil society NGO Repubblika are calling on the Prime Minister to dismiss Rosianne Cutajar from her post as parliamentary secretary.

The call comes after reports that Cutajar accepted a €50,000 cash payment for brokering a deal on behalf of Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind behind Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination. This payment went undeclared in her income statement.

READ ALSO: Yorgen’s €3.1 million Mdina deal, Rosianne Cutajar, and the judge’s husband

They noted how the payment was made when it had already become publicly known that Yorgen Fenech is the owner of 17 Black, the company through which Fenech conducted business with and pass payments to Hearnville and Tillgate, the offshore companies belonging to Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.

"Each of these is ample reason for Rosianne Cutajar to immediately end her political career. Every day, a state of impunity for those in power or close to it, and an unacceptable closeness between politicians, business people, and the criminal world, is becoming more apparent," they said.

They cited this as further proof that Maltese institutions are not functioning. "While our country is on the threshold of a Moneyval report and with the lens of the international community focused on it, this morning’s news further increases the risk that our country’s position will continue to worsen," they argued.

"If the prime minister does not dismiss Rosianne Cutajar, he will be making her shortcomings his own and will once again be failing in his obligation to the Maltese people to ensure decency in public life and legality."

Independent election candidate Arnold Cassola has since written to the standards commissioner asking for an investigation to be opened into Rosianne Cutajar's undeclared earnings.