PN wants Engerer removed from LGBT council

The Nationalist Party has accused its former deputy mayor for Sliema, Cyrus Engerer, of attempting to play down the seriousness of the charges he has been found guilty of by an Appeals Court, which on Friday overturned a first court’s acquittal.

Engerer withdrew from the European Parliament elections race after a court of appeal convicted him to a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was acquitted last year of keeping and circulating pornographic images of his former partner, and of computer misuse.

The charges were filed by his former boyfriend in 2009 when Engerer was a local councillor for the PN in Sliema – but the party did not take disciplinary steps against him, and instead supported him to succeed Joanna Gonzi as deputy mayor of Sliema council when she succeeded PN mayor Nikki Dimech, who was impeached over a criminal investigation on misappropriation of funds.

The PN now says that Engerer’s position in the PN “had been untenable” at the time he defected to Labour in the summer of 2011 in protest at Lawrence Gonzi’s opposition to divorce legislation. The actual criminal charges on the 2009 report were issued a few days after his ‘defection’.

“Engerer is not the victim but the person who committed a serious criminal act against his former partner… for years he has been posturing as a role model in the fight against homosexual prejudice. But yesterday he was found guilty of using this very prejudice to take revenge and humiliate his former partner,” the PN said in a statement.

The party said that Joseph Muscat, who accepted Cyrus Engerer as a candidate for MEP, was “now reaping what he sowed.”

“Engerer should have never been allowed to contest the elections with these pending criminal charges against him. Muscat keeps giving the impression of not knowing the difference between what’s right and wrong.”

Engerer, who is a consultant engaged with civil liberties minister Helena Dalli, is also chairman of the LGBT consultative council. “He must now be removed immediately, otherwise the prime minister would be saying that Engerer’s criminal behaviour is acceptable.”

Engerer statement

Engerer could still contest the elections under amendments to the electoral law.

“What I endured was the result of my decision to join the Labour movement. Everyone can understand the true motives behind the persecution of myself and my family. This can also be derived from a conclusion of an inquiry ordered by former minister Carmel Mifsud Bonnici,” he said in a statement.

Engerer added that he decided to withdraw his candidature because he “always believed politicians should always lead by example and shoulder responsibility when the situation demands so”.

“I remain committed to helping the Labour Party with these elections,” he said.