Labour backbencher Rosianne Cutajar has filed a complaint against PN MP Jason Azzopardi, after he claimed that she swore at him during a parliament sitting three years ago.

The breach of privilege complaint targeted a Facebook post that Azzopardi published on Saturday.

Azzopardi shared an image of Cutajar with the swear words she is alleged to have uttered off microphone after he criticised 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech by name.

He claimed that Cutajar was swearing at him during a heated debate on the 17 Black scandal, shortly after it emerged Fenech was the owner of the secret company designed to transfer money to offshore companies owned by former minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri. The following year Fenech was charged with conspiracy to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Cutajar had given an impassioned speech during the sitting, pushing back at Opposition allegations about government corruption.

On Monday, Cutajar denied Azzopardi's claims. She indignantly told parliament that she would never use such foul language.

Cutajar was forced to permanently resign from cabinet following a report by the Standards Commissioner that recommended that she be investigated by tax authorities.

Standards Commissioner George Hyzler investigated Cutajar's alleged links to a multi-million euro property deal involving Yorgen Fenech.

He found a prima facie breach of ethics by Cutajar when she pocketed more than €46,000 by brokering a 2019 property sale to Fenech and did not declare that income in her declaration of assets, and advised MPs to refer the case to the Inland Revenue Commissioner.

In July, Tax Commissioner Marvin Gaerty was meant to be called to testify “as soon as possible” in front of a parliamentary committee investigating the alleged ethical breaches by Cutajar.

The proposal for Gaerty to testify by government members of the committee for standards in public life was on Thursday backed by Speaker Anglu Farrugia, blocking the opposition from calling other witnesses, including Cutajar’s associate Charles Farrugia, known as it-Tikka.

The vote came 10 days after the Speaker stormed out of a sitting meant to kick off investigations into claims that Cutajar had received a hefty sum of cash for her part in brokering a multi-million-euro property deal.

Labour delegate and former National Book Council chair Mark Camilleri has since claimed that Cutajar and Fenech were in an intimate relationship and that Cutajar had received money from Fenech to defend him against the accusations he was facing and to attack Caruana Galizia's investigative work.

Cutajar has since sued Camilleri for libel.