Junior Minister Rosianne Cutajar must resign after she failed to declare a conflict of interest when voting in parliament on matters affecting business tycoon and murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, NGO Repubblika said on Monday.

The NGO highlighted two incidents when Cutajar, it said, had used her political position to argue or vote on issues to Fenech’s benefit.

It noted how in June 2019, Cutajar had stood up in the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly to object to a resolution concerning Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination. That resolution made mention of Fenech’s secret company 17 Black.

That was the only time that Cutajar spoke at the Council of Europe in all her time as a Maltese parliamentary representative there. Her intervention came just weeks after she had received payment from Fenech for brokering a property deal, as revealed by Times of Malta.

The NGO also said that last October, Cutajar had voted in parliament against investigating the Electrogas power station deal in parliament, without declaring a conflict of interest due to her ties to Fenech. 

Fenech helped set up the Electrogas consortium as one of its key shareholders.

“It is clear from what has been reported that Rosianne Cutajar had a relationship with Yorgen Fenech that was unacceptable and incompatible with her role as a government minister,” the NGO said.

“We now know that her relationship with Yorgen Fenech also influenced her behaviour as an MP.”

The NGO said Cutajar had used her parliamentary vote to help cover up for Fenech.  

Repubblika made its call for Cutajar’s resignation one day after The Sunday Times of Malta reported that Cutajar had solicited Fenech’s help for a political survey in her district in 2019.

Times of Malta has previously revealed that Cutajar made tens of thousands of euro by brokering a property deal involving Fenech and did not declare that income in her parliamentary declarations.

She has denied those claims and insisted she has never done business with Fenech.