John Dalli will wait for the conclusion of criminal proceedings against Silvio Zammit before deciding whether to take action against his former canvasser.
Reacting to a question posed by Giovanni Kessler, head of the EU anti-fraud agency, OLAF, in an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta, Mr Dalli insisted he would consider his options once the judicial process ended.
Dr Kessler questioned the reason why Mr Dalli hit out at everyone, including European institutions, over the snus saga that led to his forced resignation from the European Commission in 2012, but not at Mr Zammit.
The interview was carried out a day after Dr Kessler testified in a court case against Mr Zammit.
Mr Dalli had accused Dr Kessler of perjury and asked the Police Commissioner to take action against him.
Mr Zammit is charged with eliciting bribes from Swedish snus producers in exchange for submitting a proposal to lift the ban on snus. He also stands charged with trading in influence.
Mr Dalli yesterday accused The Sunday Times of Malta of acting as “an apologist” for Dr Kessler. He said the interview proved Dr Kessler was “a manipulator with an agenda that favoured the tobacco industry”.
As for the judicial procedures against Mr Zammit, Mr Dalli said he believed that when these were concluded judicial action should be taken against Dr Kessler and Swedish Match employees.
Mr Dalli reiterated the accusation that OLAF and Swedish Match officials conspired against him “to set him up”.
“This is not to mention politicians and functionaries in Brussels and in Malta who were privy to this fraud,” he said.
Mr Dalli said he asked his lawyer countless times for a chance to be involved in the judicial proceedings against Mr Zammit as a civil party but he was given the advice that the court would never accept this.
“I would have had the opportunity to question [former police commissioner John] Rizzo, [Giovanni] Kessler and the Swedish Match employees who are afraid to take the stand in Malta,” he said, reacting to Dr Kessler’s remark that Mr Dalli never joined the criminal proceedings in a civil capacity.
Mr Dalli listed a series of questions, which, he said, were left unanswered by Dr Kessler over the past two years.
“Why did Kessler not take action against Johan Gabrielsson and Cecilia Kindstrand-Isaksson of Swedish Match who have stated, as shown by a recording in the public domain, that OLAF, in collusion with the Malta Police, had advised Gabrielsson to stick to his story of the false meeting with Gayle Kimberly on February 10,, 2012?”
Mr Dalli had instituted legal proceedings in Brussels against Swedish Match and OLAF on the matter.
He also asked why Dr Kessler had not taken action against MEPs José Bove and Bart Staes. In an article they wrote last year, the two MEPs alleged the OLAF report was “manipulated, partial, biased and full of lies and illegalities”.
These allegations were repeated in a letter they sent Dr Kessler in February this year, Mr Dalli said, accusing Times of Malta of not reporting this. Mr Dalli also noted that Dr Kessler took no action against MEP Inge Graessle and others who described his working methods as “rotten right to the core” after the publication of the opinion of the Supervisory Committee, which oversees OLAF. Dr Kessler held the committee’s report under wraps for 18 months, Mr Dalli said.
On the interview Dr Kessler gave a Croatian newspaper, which he claimed had misrepresented his words – the newspaper quoted him saying there had been political interference in the Dalli case after a change of government in Malta – Mr Dalli asked why the article was never corrected.
“The report of the Croatian newspaper was identical to the position being taken by [Opposition leader] Simon Busuttil at the time and was planned to reinforce his [Busuttil’s] statements. In fact, Kessler’s comments were carried by Busuttil’s newspaper in detail... I contend that Kessler did make the statements attributed to him by the paper and that he did this in collusion with Simon Busuttil.”
Mr Dalli accused Dr Kessler of “throwing dirt” without investigating matters thoroughly when in court he mentioned “new evidence” purporting to show that Mr Dalli had twice sought to enquire about lifting the snus ban.
Dr Kessler told the court last week two of Mr Dalli’s former cabinet members, Joanna Darmanin and Paula Duarte, testified that in two cabinet meetings Mr Dalli had asked about lifting the snus ban. According to Dr Kessler, this happened around the same time that Mr Zammit had arranged meetings between snus lobbyists and Mr Dalli.
Mr Dalli denied this, insisting Dr Kessler admitted in his interview with The Sunday Times of Malta that OLAF made no attempt to verify or investigate the information.
“What professionalism is this on Kessler’s part? He simply wanted to throw dirt in court and thought that he could get away with it. Let us not forget that this was the fodder that was planned to be fed to the local newspapers and to Chris Said in the Privileges Committee to continue with a media attack against me,” Mr Dalli said.
He insisted that the evidence of another OLAF investigator in court contradicted Dr Kessler’s statements. The OLAF investigator had said Ms Darmanin was questioned a second time because of “inconsistencies” in her testimony.
“Kessler is lying again. The conclusion is that OLAF investigated these allegations in their usual manipulated, partial, biased, illegal and deceitful way.”
Mr Dalli also accused Ms Darmanin, his former head of cabinet, of “conspiring” to dilute the tobacco directive “behind his back”.
Publishing an extract from a document allegedly prepared by Ms Darmanin at the end of August 2012, Mr Dalli said she “was plotting with someone else how to dilute the directive, including lifting of the snus ban”.
He again accused this newspaper of not publishing the document when he had released it originally.
“It is in the public domain that, a few weeks after Joanna Darmanin made her statement to OLAF [the one alleging Mr Dalli queried lifting the ban], she was being pushed to take over as head of the EU mission in Malta, when a call for application had yet not been made and when she had failed all concourse examinations she had taken before. This appointment was to be forced without any consultation with the Maltese government.”
Mr Dalli said it was “about time” that OLAF’s investigation into the Bahamas case was concluded. In the interview, Dr Kessler said this would be closed by summer.
This investigation centres around Mr Dalli’s two unauthorised trips to the Caribbean island when he was still European commissioner in 2012. Mr Dalli has denied any wrongdoing, insisting the trips to the Bahamas concerned philanthropic work.
The investigation started in 2013 with Mr Dalli yesterday insisting its conclusion went far beyond the nine months it should have taken. “What fabrication is Kessler trying to concoct by that time?”
He accused Dr Kessler of breaching confidentiality on the Bahamas investigation “for the umpteenth time”.
“I am now feeling free to publish all the documentation I have relating to this investigation,” Mr Dalli said.