[VIDEO] PN demands Engerer’s expulsion from Labour

PN press conference outside CNL • PL offers refreshments

Nationalist deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami this afternoon called on Prime Minister and Labour leader Joseph Muscat to expel Cyrus Engerer from the party following the court of appeal found him guilty of distributing pornographic material.

Following the press conference held outside Labour’s headquarters in Hamrun, Labour officials led by CEO Gino Cauchi set up a table and offered some refreshments to Fenech Adami and other PN officials present.
Fenech Adami said that Engerer, who yesterday withdrew his candidature for the European elections, should be expelled from Labour.

“It is a travesty to have the Prime Minister hail a person who was charged with serious criminal offences and found guilty. The Prime Minister has turned an aggressor and a criminal into a hero,” Fenech Adami said.

Moreover, Fenech Adami called on Muscat to terminate Engerer’s government jobs, adding that it was an embarrassment “to have a criminal serving as a consultant to the home affairs minister Manuel Mallia.”

Engerer, who is also a consultant to civil liberties minister Helena Dalli, yesterday 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.

Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg insisted that Engerer’s “wasn’t a crime of passion but a premeditated and “malicious” plan. She added that the gay community felt "hurt and betrayed" by Engerer's "vindictive" and "homophobic" act.

Following his withdrawal, Engerer addressed a Labour activity in Paola together with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who baptised him as a “soldier of steel.” In an emotionally charged address, Muscat said that Engerer was the victim of persecution by the Nationalist Party.

However, Fenech Adami today insisted that Engerer, who he claimed was Muscat's "preferred candidate," is a persecutor and not persecuted.