Popular party MEP Inge Gräßle has asked the European Commission to suspend anti-fraud investigator Giovanni Kessler.
In a strongly worded statement, Ms Gräßle requested the Commission to pull the “emergency brake” after court testimony this week revealed that Dr Kessler lunched with a witness in the John Dalli case.
Ms Gräßle, the rapporteur for OLAF Regulation, was referring to the testimony of key witness Gayle Kimberley, who told a court in Malta on Thursday that after a lengthy interrogation at the hands of Dr Kessler, the Italian then took her for an hour-long lunch.
“If it is true that the investigator took a witness for an hour-long lunch, drinking wine, too much of it according to her statement, then forcing her to sign the minutes while refusing corrections, making derogatory remarks about the person examined, and showing prejudices against that person and a country, then this demonstrates serious professional and ethical misconduct,” she said.
Ms Gräßle insisted that trying to find nonexistent proof made a mockery of OLAF, the EU anti-fraud agency, and seriously damaged the reputation of the EU.
She again asked the European Parliament president to grant MEPs access to the report of the OLAF supervisory committee that showed “the failings and the amateurish investigation” by the director general in the Dalli case.
Mr Dalli was forced to resign from EU Health Commissioner last year after he was implicated in a bribery scandal, which would have seen a ban on snus tobacco lifted if a huge payment was made to a Maltese businessman.
Dr Kessler had said there was “unambiguous circumstantial evidence” that Mr Dalli was aware of the interaction between the businessman, Silvio Zammit, and the Swedish tobacco company that produces snus.
Maltese police have charged Mr Zammit, who was Mr Dalli’s canvasser, in connection with the bribery allegations.
Dr Kimberley, a lawyer who represented the Swedish snus company during talks with Mr Dalli, was testifying in the case against Mr Zammit.
Mr Dalli has denied any wrongdoing.