Michael Cassar resigns as police commissioner

Michael Cassar has resigned as police commissioner with immediate effect, citing health reasons.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in a statement that he begrudgingly accepted Cassar’s decision to resign and that assistant commissioner Lawrence Cutajar has now been promoted to acting police commissioner.

Cutajar has now become the government’s fifth police commissioner in three years – following John Rizzo, Peter Paul Zammit, Ray Zammit and Michael Cassar. Rizzo was replaced by Zammit in April 2013, after Labour was elected to power.

“As everyone knows, I always gave my all in my 37 years of service in the police force,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “Work had taken up practically taken up every waking hour of the day, and I consequently forgot to take care of myself. I used to several exercises and avoided a lot of problems. After I stopped, some problems started popping up again.”

Cassar had to undergo medical supervision when he suffered from severe chest pains after returning from a holiday with his wife in Rome.

But close aides have told MaltaToday that the straw that broke the camel’s back was a request for comment from sections of the media asking him whether he is the beneficial owner of an offshore Panama company. “He was shocked to have been asked the question,” a source said, referring to questions from the Malta Independent.

Cassar was once again in the eye of the storm after public calls from Opposition leader Simon Busuttil to investigate privatisation contracts that took place under the aegis of energy and health minister Konrad Mizzi, because of the minister’s offshore company he had opened in Panama.

As a police officer, Cassar, who lives in Zabbar, made a name for himself with a tough stand against drug barons and trafficking. In 1994 his home was extensively damaged by a bomb placed by Emmanuel Camilleri (Leli l-Bully) a convicted drug trafficker.

Both Cassar and home affairs minister Carmelo Abela were appointed to their present role following the shooting incident that involved the driver of Abela’s predecessor Manuel Mallia.