Head of Malta’s Civil Sevice Mario Cutajar has categorically denied claims of leading a conspiracy and abusing his power to force a tax official to resign through bogus arrests. 

MP Jason Azzopardi made the claim in parliament, which he said happened shortly after the Labour Party’s electoral win in 2013. He claimed that the official was kept overnight and even subject to a “humiliating strip search”. However, the concerns were eventually rubbished by prosecuting inspector, current Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa. 

Cutajar insisted he never interfered with the issue, claiming that this was the third time Azzopardi had attempted to tarnish him.

The first instance involved claims of a relative of Cutajar, who turned out to not be a relative at all. The second was regarding the employment of his brother, Aldo, to a position of trust. This had been done under the previous administration.

Cutajar said that there two cases involving tax officials under his tenure. The first involved tampering with exam results and the second was interference by an official regarding the direction of top tax officials to waive tax due.

In both cases, Cutajar had no contact with the police.

Writing on social media, Peter Paul Zammit also denied the claims, insisting that Azzopardi was “lying behind the curtain of parliamentary privilege”, calling on the right to be removed. 

“This is lies and dirt from those who should know better,” he said. 

Zammit went on to say Azzopardi was a peddler of fake news. 

Azzopardi has used parliamentary privilege in the past to make similar sensational claims, mostly related to the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination. He has been mocked in the past, but these claims have often proved correct.

Speaking in parliament, Azzopardi said that a file documenting the arrest and the detention log was discovered.  However, it is unknown where the documents are, Azzopardi said.

The official’s lawyer at the time was current Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Azzopardi said that Abela knows the case and the issues regarding Mario Cutajar well, demanding that he take action.

He claimed that failure to do so would prove that Abela is a continuation of the issues that plagued his predecessor, Joseph Muscat.

Cutajar’s brother, Aldo, has been arrested and charged with money laundering after police discovered €500,000 in cash during a raid on his home and a further $400,000 in a Dubai bank account.

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