PN MP Jason Azzopardi has breached parliamentary privilege by claiming on social media that government backbencher Rosianne Cutajar hurled insults at him during a parliamentary debate in 2018.

Speaker Anglu Farrugia ruled on the complaint filed by Cutajar on Monday.

Azzopardi uploaded a photo of Cutajar’s alleged choice of obscenities on Saturday, saying that the Labour MP and former Parliamentary Secretary had lobbed the insults at him during a parliamentary debate on 12 November 2018 which was discussing Yorgen Fenech’s company 17 Black.

The Speaker ruled that there was a prima facie breach of privilege when he uploaded the posts, noting that there was nothing in the transcripts that could have backed up Azzopardi’s claims – not even a complaint raised on any vulgar language or interruptions.

As a result, the Speaker ordered Azzopardi to retract his Facebook post.

Azzopardi reacted on social media, having not attended parliament as he was abroad, saying that the truth cannot be silenced or curtailed.

He said that he believed in that notion so much that he would not be appealing the ruling, but said that it is now up to the parliament’s privileges committee to meet so that he could summon Yorgen Fenech, Diane Izzo, Edward Zammit Lewis, Keith Schembri, Joseph Muscat, Marion Mizzi, Charles Farrugia, FCID and CID officials, Mark Camilleri, and others to testify about the “luxurious gifts” which Cutajar received.

Azzopardi then said that he would retract nothing from what he said.

During the sitting in question back in 2018, Cutajar put up a stout defence of Fenech.

Cutajar is known to have had a close relationship with Fenech, and in fact lost her parliamentary secretary position after she was alleged to have received some €50,000 while acting as a broker to Fenech in securing a property deal.

She denied this, but admitted to have received €9,000 in cash from Fenech as a birthday gift.  Nonetheless, the Standards Commissioner found her in prima facie breach of ethics as an MP.

Cutajar’s alleged choice words for Azzopardi emerged in screenshots purported to be of Yorgen Fenech’s whatsapp chats  which were shared by former book council chief Mark Camilleri – who Cutajar opened a libel case against in recent days.

The chat – between Fenech and Dizz Group’s Diane Izzo – shows Fenech saying how Cutajar had gone off the rails defending him, and that she had apparently shouted the insults off-mic at Azzopardi when the latter said that it will be the court who sees whether Fenech is innocent or not.