The head of the EU’s anti-fraud agency has questioned the decision of former European Commissioner John Dalli to attack his office and other institutions in the enduring Dalligate saga instead of turning the guns on the man charged with allegedly asking for a bribe in his name.

“He (Mr Dalli) has been very proactive, going to the police in Malta, in Belgium, to the press and in other fora, to denounce everybody... but not Silvio Zammit. What would you do if a former friend betrayed you and that cost you your career?” Giovanni Kessler asked.

“He could have taken Mr Zammit to court for tarnishing his reputation... He could have accused him of trading in influence to his detriment. There is no question that Silvio Zammit has damaged Mr Dalli, greatly. Mr Dalli also has the right I think, to be a civil party in the criminal case. It would give Mr Dalli the right to have a lawyer in that case putting questions to Mr Zammit. He didn’t. Why?”

He was speaking in an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta in the wake of a request by Mr Dalli for the police to take action against Mr Kessler for perjury.

Mr Kessler told a Maltese court last Tuesday that the anti-fraud agency (OLAF) had interviewed two members of the former Commissioner’s Cabinet who said Mr Dalli had twice enquired about lifting a ban on snus – the central issue at the centre of the scandal. Mr Dalli was forced to resign from the European Commission in October 2012.

Of course he has the right to rebut the accusations levelled at him but that is not the place

Mr Kessler was testifying in the case of Mr Zammit, the 58-year-old former Sliema deputy mayor who is facing corruption charges in relation to his alleged request for a bribe of €60 million in return for the lifting of a ban on snus – a smokeless form of tobacco popular in Sweden which cannot be sold anywhere except in the Scandinavian country, according to EU rules.

Among other evidence presented in court was a recorded conversation between Mr Zammit and a representative from the European Smokeless Tobacco Lobby (ESTOC) Inge Delfosse in which the former Commissioner’s canvasser asked for €10m to arrange a meeting between his “boss” and Ms Delfosse’s boss, in which a proposal to lift the ban would be discussed.

Former European Commissioner John Dalli.

According to the evidence presented in court so far, this would have been the second time Mr Zammit made this sort of request, the first occasion being at his restaurant on the Sliema front when he allegedly asked a representative from snus producer Swedish Match for €60m to lift the ban.

In the original OLAF investigation, the agency concluded there was enough circumstantial evidence, primarily a series of phone calls exchanged between Mr Dalli and Mr Zammit at key moments when these alleged bribe requests were made, which indicate he knew his former canvasser was using his name to secure a bribe.

However, the investigation report always emphasised that the tobacco directive, which at the time was under review, had not been changed as a result of these bribe requests and that there was no conclusive evidence indicating Mr Dalli was a part of the scam.

Last Tuesday, Mr Kessler named two officials within Mr Dalli’s private secretariat who said that Mr Dalli had twice enquired about the prospect of lifting the ban. The timing of these meetings is salient since they happen to coincide with the period Mr Zammit was allegedly asking for money, suggesting, for the first time, a tandem at work.

Mr Dalli’s reply was instantaneous. He issued a statement while the proceedings were still ongoing, accusing Dr Kessler of perjury and demanding that the police take action before he leaves Malta.

“The dates stated by Kessler are invented to coincide with his theory of meetings,” Mr Dalli charged.

When confronted with Mr Dalli’s statement that he had lied on the witness stand, Dr Kessler shook his head.

“I said in court that we had come across this information and that we had passed it on to the Maltese authorities,” he said.

He said OLAF made no attempt to verify or investigate the information because, as far as the agency was concerned, the probe concerning snus was closed from its end. However, the fresh information was passed on to the Maltese authorities since it might be useful to them.

OLAF stumbled upon this new evidence in the process of a second investigation concerning Mr Dalli, this time relating to a number of undeclared trips he made to the Bahamas while he was serving as commissioner, which, the former Maltese minister said, were related to charity work.

On this second probe, Dr Kessler said the investigation will likely be concluded by the summer, barring something unexpected.

Mr Dalli also challenged the agency director general to a confrontation before Parliament’s Privileges Committee, which is hearing a complaint lodged by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat against Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, over the latter’s claim that Mr Dalli had not been arraigned due to political interference.

Former Police Commissioner John Rizzo, who wanted to arraign Mr Dalli – but didn’t because he was abroad and had presented medical certificates claiming he was sick – was replaced after the election by Peter Paul Zammit who was of the opinion there was not enough evidence to obtain a conviction.

Dr Kessler did not present himself before the Privileges Committee because he did not have prior clearance from the European Commission but even if he did have clearance, he said he would not have accepted a confrontation.

“Of course he has the right to rebut the accusations levelled at him but that is not the place. The place to do that is in court.”

The last time Mr Kessler was called before the Privileges Committee, he could not attend but he sent a statement that created a firestorm especially his claim that the former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit had failed to cooperate with the ongoing Bahamas investigation. Since then, both Peter Paul Zammit and his successor Ray Zammit have been replaced. Asked if he was happy with the present state of cooperation with the police, he nodded.

“Yes. I would say it’s a normal, professional relationship.”

That point on the lack of cooperation from the police was the final point in a chronology of facts that seemed to sustain the idea there had been a change of direction after the March 2013 general election on the Dalli case.

When this is put to him, Dr Kessler pointed out he had simply highlighted the facts. In a Croatian magazine, however, he had been reported saying he believed there had been political interference in this particular case.

The magazine quoted him saying: “When Dalli returned to Malta, the government sacked the chief of police and the new police chief said he had no case against Dalli. Political interference in judicial matters is dangerous and caused damage.  In this case, it happened.”

During the interview he shook his head and suggested the message got lost in translation.

“I was always factual in what I said about this matter, as I was on the witness stand in court. It may have been a matter of wrong interpretation or a translation taken out of context. We were talking about broad issues related to the risks of political interference in the investigative sphere in general. I did not enter into comments about the Maltese case,” he said.