The Maltese police chief, Lawrence Cutajar, presented a resignation letter this morning that the government has accepted. This was announced by the new prime minister, Robert Abela, with the interior minister, Byron Camilleri at his side. Cutajar had been appointed 3 years ago and placed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat but has always been heavily criticized for the delays and omissions in the investigation into the upper echelons involved in the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Cutajar's post was attributed interim to his deputy, Carmelo Magri, until the appointment of a new Chief Commissioner. Abela said that Cutajar presented a resignation letter to the government this morning, which was accepted. "In his letter Cutajar wrote that the appointment of a new prime minister required a change at the top, so that the necessary reform of the police force can begin to be made," said the premier, underlining that under the leadership of Cutajar, however, the police has achieved positive results, including the indictment of four people (the three hit men and the suspected principal, the casino king Yorgen Fenech) for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galicia.
However, the Maltese media today recall that Cutajar and his independence have been contested since the appointment, when the Nationalist (opposition) party stressed Cutajar's posts on Facebook, in which he repeatedly incensed the Labor government and then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat (called "man with balls"). Abela today announced that the Council of Ministers will discuss a "serious and transparent" reform proposal for the appointment of the chief of police next week. During the brief election campaign for the race for leaders of the Labor party (which has a very solid absolute majority in Parliament and therefore automatically expresses the Prime Minister), Abela has repeatedly stated that he wants a police chief "who has the confidence of all "and proposed that the candidate undergo a parliamentary hearing before taking office. In addition, Abela has repeatedly hinted that he is not satisfied with the police report on the investigation into the murder of Daphne caruana Galizia, killed on 16 October 2017. "There was no information: a total lack of communication," he said. The opposition welcomed the resignation of Cutajar with satisfaction ("due for a long time" due to the "glaring incompetence on which he managed his responsibilities"). The intervention of one of the sons of the killed journalist, Paul Caruana Galizia, who posted a link with the 2017 comments on Twitter, was bitter, saying: "How much they made fun of us when, one day after the murder of my mother, we asked the resignation of the prime minister, the chief of police, the attorney general and to investigate Keith Schembri. "