Police Commissioner John Rizzo yesterday declined to answer questions related to the questioning of former European Commissioner John Dalli in connection with the alleged cash-for-influence affair that led to his resignation.
Mr Rizzo also refused to confirm or deny a report in Malta Today stating that Mr Dalli had spent Monday night in Mr Rizzo’s office and was apparently not held under arrest despite spending almost 34 hours at the police headquarters in Floriana.
The newspaper reported that Mr Dalli remained at the depot because “he chose to have the interrogation continue uninterrupted”.
Asked whether he felt there should have been a press conference or a public statement given the profile of the case, Mr Rizzo said: “Do I tell you how to do your job? I said no comment.”
Mr Dalli, who left the police headquarters on Tuesday evening following a marathon session of questioning that began on Monday morning, remained unavailable for comment throughout the day yesterday.
The interrogation included a confrontation with the man at the centre of the scandal, Silvio Zammit. Mr Zammit, who sources said was also questioned earlier this month, arrived at police headquarters at about 3pm and left three hours later – some 30 minutes before Mr Dalli’s departure.
Both men left in cars that had been parked inside the Criminal Investigation Department yard at the back of the headquarters.
The case reached the police after an investigation conducted by the EU’s anti-fraud agency, OLAF, concluded that Mr Zammit had asked the tobacco company Swedish Match for a bribe to use his influence on Mr Dalli to lift the EU-wide ban on snus, a smokeless form of tobacco that can only be sold in Sweden under current rules.
OLAF said it did not have any “conclusive evidence” directly linking Mr Dalli to the request but the agency’s director general, Giovanni Kessler, said there was “unambiguous circumstantial evidence” showing that Mr Dalli was aware of it and had failed to stop it.
The report was eventually passed on to the police following a recommendation for investigation by the Attorney General.
The police investigation is also looking into the role of the lawyer who represented Swedish Match in Malta, Gayle Kimberley, who told the tobacco company that a request for a bribe had been made during a meeting she had with Mr Zammit.
According to Swedish Match, Mr Dalli attended the first part of this meeting at Mr Zammit’s restaurant, Peppi’s in Sliema, but then left before the bribe request was made.
Mr Dalli has vehemently denied the allegations, as has Mr Zammit who has also refused to comment on the case.