Byron Camilleri fired Lawrence Cutajar after we learnt that “il-kbir ta’ Ħal Luqa”, as Melvyn Theuma described him in court today, provided a traffic-fine cancelling service from his desk at police headquarters while undermining his investigative officers by warning criminals to expect their imminent arrest.

Lawrence Cutajar had his resignation as police chief accepted by Robert Abela soon after his election on 12 January. But the same day of his resignation, he was made consultant “on public safety and logistics,” whatever that means, keeping the salary he had as top cop.

Today Byron Camilleri kicked Lawrence Cutajar out saying that his office wants to wait for the facts to become clear.

Jesus wept.

They can really pretend to be so clueless when they need to.

On 23 February 2020, Times of Malta’s Ivan Martin and Jacob Borg reported that Lawrence Cutajar held at least two meetings with Edwin Brincat il-Ġojja, who is apparently some form of guardian of Melvyn Theuma. The second meeting was held in spite of ‘instructions’ from Lawrence Cutajar’s junior officers investigating the case not to meddle with the evidence.

That February story quoted sources saying “the meeting happened without the knowledge of the investigative team and raised serious concerns of ‘possible collusion’ between the former police chief and one of the suspected players in the murder investigation, when it was flagged by investigative partners at a later date.”

Yesterday’s report by Ivan Martin says “a clip from newly-discovered recordings made by Daphne Caruana Galizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma has raised concerns that former police chief Lawrence Cutajar may have tipped him off about his impending arrest.”

So, the 23 February suspicion became a 7 June likelihood, and now confirmed further by this morning’s testimony in court.

And today Byron Camilleri fires him.

Firstly, I want to remark that we clearly owe Lawrence Cutajar’s dismissal to the journalism of Jacob Borg and Ivan Martin. The latter has been getting some flak because of his flawed interview with Chris Cardona. But we need to look at the big picture and the big picture is that the Times of Malta reporters are keeping this story alive.

Secondly, I want to turn to Byron Camilleri who thinks we’re done with him.

When did Byron Camilleri learn what we learnt yesterday and today about Lawrence Cutajar? What questions did he ask the police after the 23 report on Times of Malta? What answers did he get?

Did Byron Camilleri know Lawrence Cutajar was suspected of collusion with suspects in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia before he appointed him as his consultant? Did he find out before this afternoon?

If he didn’t find out before this afternoon, who is he firing for keeping him in the dark?

And since I’m morally convinced Byron Camilleri tried to cover this up until Times of Malta (and Jason Azzopardi’s line of questioning in court) burst this umpteenth bubble open, when is Byron Camilleri resigning?

This protection racket for crooks must be broken.