Former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli said today that European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso should be arrested if he came to Malta.
Reacting in a statement to comments made in Parliament yesterday by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, Mr Dalli noted that Dr Busuttil had asked Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia whether Mr Barroso would be arrested if he came to Malta.
“I would say that he should.” Mr Dalli said.
When he referred to Dr Busuttil’s question on whether Mr Barroso would be arrested, Mr Dalli asked: “Was Dr. BS in Brussels on the 8th July? Did he meet Barroso or anyone else in the Commission to discuss this issue? Was it Barroso or anyone from the Commission that asked him this question?
"I assure Dr. BS that this time around I will not leave things lie as I did in 2004, when the then Commissioner of Police decided not to investigate who instigated and used Joe Zahra, the private investigator who received a two-year jail sentence.
Mr Dalli also said he had nothing to hide about a second investigation being carried out by Olaf, the EU anti-fraud agency.
“Now I feel that I am free from my obligation of confidentiality. I am considering publishing the correspondence that I have with OLAF and part of which has not yet been replied to by OLAF and to take further appropriate action,” Mr Dalli said.
Mr Dalli said Dr Busuttil's comments yesterday were part of a fraud committed against him.He asked whether Dr Busuttil was part of the fraud perpetuated in 2004.
“Dr BS keeps insisting on Kessler’s lie that I sent him a message not to come to Malta. I already said, and I say again, that I sent him no such message. I have a witness to the conversations I had with the journalist including the unsolicited confession by Kessler that he knows that he did something wrong when interviewing Dr Kimberly and that he was talking to Gonzi.
“As I had said, I was talking to a journalist and was expounding my conclusions based on the fact that Kessler was asked more than once to come to Malta to give evidence in the case against Zammit, and that he did not turn up. As reported in the papers Zammit’s defence lawyer seems to have reached the same conclusion.
“But it seems that Dr BS thinks that he alone has the right to come to conclusions," Mr Dalli said.
He continued that the second investigation was just a media campaign organised by the Commission and OLAF to slander and intimidate him.
"Another conclusion that I arrive at is that Dr BS is part of this campaign. I do ask: why did Dr GK (Giovanni Kessler, director-general of Olaf) have to write to the Speaker when he knew that the session in front of the Privileges Committee was postponed? And why did he have to bring in the second investigation if not to throw mud? Dr BS should know, as he declared that he is a universal expert that Kessler’s action is in breach of the obligation of confidentiality that binds him and that Dr GK insists on. Dr BS is mum on this. He is also mum after the statement made by Mr (Silvio) Zammit that he was offered a presidential pardon if he lied about me.
“On this second investigation I have nothing to hide and now I feel that I am free from my obligation of confidentiality. I am considering publishing the correspondence that I have with OLAF and part of which has not yet been replied to by OLAF and to take further appropriate action," he said.