Updated 1.40pm
Rosianne Cutajar has been given a second and final opportunity to answer breach of conduct accusations before the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly.
Cutajar, who is one of three Maltese MPs to form part of the assembly, is being investigated over a 2019 speech she gave in which she shot down a colleague’s report into the Daphne Caruana Galizia case and the rule of law in Malta.
More than 30 members of the Council of Europe assembly endorsed the request for an investigation filed by Dutch MP Peter Omtzigt, triggering a probe by the assembly’s Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs.
While Cutajar is understood to have written to the committee, she did not respond to a request to answer questions in person.
The committee last met on Wednesday, when it resolved to give Cutajar another, final opportunity to appear before it and defend herself. The committee’s next meeting is scheduled to take place at the end of September.
Cutajar responded to the news with a Facebook post on Saturday afternoon which included photos of Omtzigt speaking to Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi.
"Attacks by Omtzigt and Jason Azzopardi's foreign friends continue," she wrote. "I will not be intimidated. I will continue to defend Malta's name."
Omtzigt’s 2019 Council of Europe report into Malta made explicit reference to Yorgen Fenech and his secret company 17 Black, which Caruana Galizia was the first to name. Fenech stands accused of complicity in the journalist’s assassination. He is pleading not guilty to charges.
Cutajar derided Omtzigt’s report and findings when she spoke at the assembly in June of that year.
Times of Malta has since revealed that she was involved in a property deal with Fenech. Though she denies any involvement, parliament’s standards commissioner advised MPs to recommend a tax probe into her and Prime Minister Robert Abela demoted her out of cabinet as a result.
Last April, Omtzigt asked the assembly to investigate Cutajar for a breach of conduct.
Should the committee find Cutajar guilty of such a breach, it can sanction her by temporarily banning her from speaking at the assembly, signing resolutions or motions, asking questions, acting as a rapporteur or serving on committees or temporarily suspending her as an assembly member altogether.