Former European commissioner John Dalli enquired about lifting the ban on smokeless tobacco, snus, at around the same time as his former canvasser allegedly asked for a bribe to secure this outcome, according to fresh evidence presented to Malta’s Attorney General.
The EU’s anti-fraud agency (OLAF) has sent a new evidence note with testimonies of two people who have made statements that Mr Dalli enquired about the possibility of amending EU legislation relating to the smokeless tobacco that was at the heart of the scandal that forced his resignation from the EU executive in 2012.
The witnesses, who work for the Commission, were interviewed as part of a second probe into Mr Dalli, this time relating to a number of undeclared trips he made to the Bahamas while he was serving as commissioner, which, he said, were related to charity work.
Since OLAF had concluded the snus investigation, it passed on this information to the Maltese authorities. The Bahamas probe is still ongoing.
The testimony, which has now been passed to police by Malta’s Attorney General, gives a new twist to the original investigation, which so far has seen one person face charges: Mr Dalli’s former canvasser, Silvio Zammit.
Mr Zammit is alleged to have asked for €60 million from tobacco lobbyists to help lift the ban.
He had also allegedly facilitated two meetings between the ex-commissioner and tobacco lobbyists, in which the snus question was discussed.
Mr Dalli, who has persistently denied any wrongdoing, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
JOHN DALLI REACTION
However in a statement this morning he said that it was being assumed that he could have only discussed snus with Silvio Zammit.
"In fact this is far from the truth. I had various discussions on snus with ministers of the Swedish Government and with Swedish MEP’s who were aggressively pressing for the liberalisation of the product. If Olaf have a shred of decency, they would have easily found this out as this is well documented.
"Following these meetings, and at the time that I was concluding with my Services all aspects of our proposal for the revision of the Tobacco Directive, I could have asked for legal clarity on the issue from my services as it is my practice to follow up on my meetings. In fact, the concluding meeting between my Services and myself on the revision of the Tobacco Directive took place on the 28th February 2012.
"OLAF, and their collaborators in Malta, are clutching at straws to try to wiggle out of the obvious conclusions being reached by all objective observers, that a fraud was perpetuated against me," Mr Dalli said.
Additionally, he said, this was stated by Johan Gabrielsson of Swedish Match in the statements he gave to Olaf on September 19, 2012. Against all procedures, OLAF never confronted him with this statement. So why was OLAF bringing this up now?
More on The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.