Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà has been ordered by a judge to take criminal action against Mark Camilleri over the leaked Yorgen Fenech chats featuring intimate and political discussions between the businessman and MP Rosianne Cutajar, Times of Malta reported.

Though a 2021 court ban is in place, Camilleri published over 2,000 messages taken from WhatsApp chats between the two on his website.

The at-times salacious messages have been at the centre of national discussion over the last few days, with Prime Minister Robert Abela reacting by calling out Roberta Metsola for associating with a misogynist, referring to Camilleri.

The judge – who was not named – made the order after Cutajar’s lawyers filed an urgent application requesting an investigation into how the WhatsApp messages were obtained and published by Camilleri.

Repubblika’s Robert Aquilina slammed the judge’s order, saying the island had “returned to a situation where a member of parliament, the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner are working together to throw a journalist in prison”.

The leaked chats reveal moments where the politician offered to help Fenech craft media statements on allegations he faced at the time from former MP David Thake, as well as moments of overt sexual tension between the high-powered individuals.

Fenech was facing public criticism at the time after it was revealed that he owned the offshore company 17 Black, but his involvement in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia was still not yet public.

In the wake of the published chats, Camilleri has said he is “out of reach” and hit back at Abela’s misogyny claims, warning it’s a “typical diatribe of a dictator”.