Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has denied knowing that former police chief Lawrence Cutajar had allegedly leaked information to Daphne Caruana Gaizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma.

In comments to Times of Malta outside parliament on Tuesday, Camilleri said he only found out about the alleged tip-off “from court”.

On whether he was briefed about the issue when he took over as Home Affairs Minister in January, Camilleri said this had not been the case. 

“I believe that the minister should never intervene in investigations and he should not even be informed of things. Since taking over, I have continued to stick to this belief,” he said. 

For this reason, he said, there was no other way for him to find out about the former police commissioner but from court proceedings. 

On Monday, the government terminated its consultancy contract with Cutajar, hours after a magistrate ordered a police investigation into claims that he had leaked information. 

According to Camilleri, he acted the minute the revelations in court started and had even suspended the contract when the issues first became known “in court”. 

The suspension, however, had come after revelations by The Sunday Times of Malta on June 7 that new Melvin Theuma recordings had raised concerns that Cutajar had leaked information, including the date when Theuma was to be arrested. This was before the former police chief was named in court. 

Cutajar has denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.