Giovanni Kessler, head of the European anti-fraud agency (OLAF), allegedly took a main witness in the Dalligate scandal to lunch “to relax and have some wine” after inter­rogating her over several hours.

The claim was made in court yesterday by the witness, Maltese lawyer Gayle Kimberley, who was a consultant to tobacco manufacturer Swedish Match at the time.

In her testimony, she said the agency chief warned her to be afraid of John Dalli and Silvio Zammit as he (Dr Kessler) “was Italian and knew how things worked”.

Dr Kimberley was testifying in the case against Mr Zammit, 48, from Sliema, who is pleading not guilty to charges of bribery and trading in influence in connection with a review of EU tobacco laws.

Mr Zammit was investigated by local police following a probe by OLAF, whose report forced the resignation of former European Health Commissioner Mr Dalli.

She vomited with worry in her room

In previous testimony Dr Kimberley said Mr Zammit, who used to be a canvasser for Mr Dalli, had requested €60 million to use his services for the lifting of the EU ban on snus, a smokeless tobacco.

Yesterday, she told the court the OLAF interrogation took place in Troia, Portugal, where she was meant to be representing Malta at a gaming regulators’ conference.

On the morning of the conference she was surprised outside the hotel, just as she was leaving, by Dr Kessler and another man who identified themselves as being from OLAF. They said they needed to speak to her about an investigation.

She accompanied them to a room where she claimed she was interrogated from 9am to 4pm. It was during the interrogation that Dr Kessler – a former anti-mafia prosecutor in Italy – warned her about Mr Dalli and Mr Zammit.

Towards the end of questioning, Dr Kessler said he wanted to go to lunch, have some wine and relax.

He took her out of the room and, before leaving, told an assistant present for the interrogation to type out the statement she had given.

The two of them had lunch and, on returning to the hotel, Dr Kessler told Dr Kimberley to hurry up, read and sign the statement because it was 4pm and he had to catch the 4.15pm boat back.

She said he assured her that the statement could be corrected at later date and she signed it.

She then went back to her hotel room and vomited with worry. She told her former lover Iosif Galea – a colleague at the Gaming Authority who accompanied her on the trip – what had happened to her but did not give any details.

The day after returning to Malta she received a phone call from Mr Zammit who, after making small talk, told her that OLAF were asking questions and that he got this information from Mr Dalli.

She did not mention that she had been questioned but Mr Zammit told her that he was not worried because he had done nothing wrong.

Dr Kimberly also said that she tried to call off the relationship she had with Mr Galea – who was a close friend of Mr Zammit – but he had refused.

She received a phone call from him during which he asked her why she had sent a specific document to OLAF and she realised that he had accessed her Gmail account without her consent.

The only time she had ever given him a password for an e-mail account was when she asked him to access her work e-mail for him to send an urgent document to her boss. Dr Kimberly later changed the password.

She said that months later she received a phone call from OLAF and she asked them why she had not received the statements she released. They sent her the documents and in a second interview held in Malta she told Dr Kessler that she wanted to make some minor changes to them but he became very agitated and flustered.

She received another phone call from OLAF informing her that they had interrogated Mr Zammit who was very angry. They said they feared for her safety and went so far as to tell her not to leave the house.

Dr Kimberley received the call on the same day she was meant to attend a wedding and when her husband was meant to go abroad. At this point she decided to tell her husband about the interrogation as had been in the dark.

He told her that he was not going to leave the island when the safety of his family was in question and he decided to confront Mr Zammit about it. When he returned home he told her there was no threat from Mr Zammit.

In another OLAF interview which took place in Brussels, during which she was questioned for a further seven hours, she took a voice recorder with her to make sure of what she said.

Asked by Police Inspector Angelo Gafà if she had ever received threats over this case, she said only from Mr Galea and this was related to their relationship ending. He threatened to sever the brakes of her car and smash her face in.

The case continues.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.