Police Commissioner John Rizzo yesterday categorically denied that the police had instructed an official at the tobacco company Swedish Match not to say the truth with regard to a key witness in the Dalligate scandal.

“It has to be clarified, beyond any doubt, that no police officer involved in these investigations ever instructed anyone, including officials at Swedish Match, not to tell the truth about Gayle Kimberley or any other person involved in the investigation,” the police said.

The statement came in reaction to an article in MaltaToday yesterday, which amplified on a recorded conversation between Green MEP José Bové and Swedish Match executive Johann Gabrielsson, in which he said his company had been urged by EU anti-fraud agency OLAF officials to stick to a misleading version of events that wrongly placed Dr Kimberley in a meeting with former European Commissioner John Dalli in February.