Deputy police commissioner Ramon Mercieca resigned from the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) board after a photo of him emerged, showing that he attended independent MP Rosianne Cutajar’s gender reveal party, Times of Malta reported on Sunday.

Cutajar’s gender reveal party took place on 25 March, and Mercieca has not returned to work since the photo emerged but he was marked down as being on sick leave. A spokesperson for the FIAU said that Mercieca’s last day on the board was March 27.

“When you’re in that position, which bears such great responsibility, it’s not ethical to go to a party like that in the midst of a national controversy,” one senior source told Times of Malta.

Mercieca is one of two deputy commissioners who are tasked with overseeing the country’s police operations. He was appointed to deputy commissioner in 2021 and initially joined the police in 2001.

The party took place four days after author Mark Camilleri leaked WhatsApp chats between Cutajar and businessman and alleged mastermind behind Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder Yorgen Fenech.

The messages, dated between June and September 2019, detailed the close and intimate relationship between the MP and the businessman but also included details of Cutajar’s annoyance at not being included in Joseph Muscat’s Cabinet and of her wanting to “pig out” like her other colleagues by taking on a consultancy job.

They were leaked by Camilleri on the eve of a court sitting in a libel case that Cutajar had instituted against Camilleri himself after the author wrote on his blog that Cutajar and Fenech had a close relationship.

Following this leak, Cutajar resigned from the PL’s parliamentary group but will continue to serve as an independent MP.