One of the 11 audio tapes on which the police recorded the long statement given to them by businessman Silvio Zammit during interrogations is empty, a court experts said this afternoon.

Court expert Martin Bajada, appointed to transcribe the statements, said he had transcribed 10 of the tapes because the eleventh one was empty. He presented the court with a 550-page document with all that was said.

Magistrate Anthony Vella heard that there were three copies of this audio recording: one at the courts, one at the police and another at the defence. Prosecuting officer Jonathan Ferris told the court he would pass on the prosecution’s copy for transcription purposes.

Dr Bajada was testifying in the criminal case against Mr Zammit, the man accused of bribery and trading in influence when John Dalli was EU Commissioner for Health,

Mr Dalli was forced to step down in October 2012 after OLAF concluded that he was aware his former canvasser Silvio Zammit had asked Swedish Match for a €60 million bribe to help lift a ban on snus, a type of tobacco consumed orally, which can only be sold in Sweden.

Asked by defence lawyers Kris Busietta and Edward Gatt whether he could confirm that the part where former Police Commissioner John Rizzo called Mr Zammit “a cesspit of sewage” was in the 10 tapes he had transcribed, Dr Bajada said he had to listened to so many times that he could not remember.

At the point, Mr Ferris lashed out at the defence for trying to “make headlines” with such claim. Dr Gatt rebutted, saying he was simply doing his job because he wanted the truth to emerge.