Former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar has had a €31,000-a-year consultancy job with the government suspended with immediate effect. 

The suspension comes one day after Times of Malta revealed that investigators feared that Cutajar could have tipped off Daphne Caruana Galizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma that he was going to be arrested. 

Testifying in court on Monday, Theuma said that Cutajar had asked a mutual acquaintance, Edwin Brincat (il-Ġojja) if he knew anything about recordings Theuma had made about the murder. 

Cutajar was police commissioner at the time. 

In a brief statement, the Home Affairs Ministry said that while Cutajar had defended himself when confronted with the allegations, the ministry had decided to suspend him “until the facts are clarified”. 

Cutajar served as police commissioner between April 2016 and January 2020. He was given a three-year contract as a consultant with the Home Affairs Ministry on the very same day he resigned as commissioner. 

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