Submission of OLAF report may hinder Dalli arraignment

Police intend to arraign former EU Commissioner John Dalli, and charge him in relation to an alleged bribery case which ended his career in Brussels last October, despite an investigation conducted by

The EU anti-fraud agency (OLAF) pointed only to "circumstantial evidence" against him.

The 63 year-old former Maltese minister - forced to resign from the EU executive over claims that he did nothing to stop an acquaintance from using his ties to ask a Swedish company for money to influence new EU tobacco rules - was meant to be charged on January 7, but his arraignment had to be postponed after he fell ill and had to be recovered in a Brussels hospital.

Sunday paper 'Illum' revealed that Dalli's sudden illness has derailed the Attorney General's plans to have OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler brought to Malta to testify in the Dalli case and also in another case being brought against his former canvasser, Silvio Zammit, 48 of Sliema.

Zammit was charged in December with soliciting a €60 million bribe from tobacco firm 'Swedish Match' in exchange for the lifting of a ban on snus - a smokeless form of tobacco which, under current EU rules, can only be sold in Sweden. Lobbyist Gayle Kimberly, who played a central role as intermediary between Swedish Match and Zammit, will not be charged but only produced as a prosecution witness in the case.

Newspaper 'Illum' reported that the Attorney General wanted Kessler to present the OLAF report to the Maltese court, but the plan was anticipated by Magistrate Anthony Vella last week, who ordered that the report be presented as evidence this week during the continuation of the compilation of evidence against Zammit.

The OLAF report, which Dalli himself and a number of influential MEPs have repeatedly challenged Kessler to publish, will now have to be handed to the Courts and to Zammit's defence counsel.

During last Thursdays sitting, lawyers Edward Gatt and Kris Busietta argued that it was unacceptable for the report - which was an intrinsic part of the case against their client - to be kept out of the proceedings.

Gatt and Busietta insisted that by withholding the report, the prosecution was making the defence's job very difficult, and impeded their ability to carry out a thorough cross examination of witnesses,

They claimed that the only reason why the prosecution was holding back from submitting the report during the proceedings was because "John Dalli was to be prosecuted."

While Magistrate Vella interrupted and asked why was it taking the prosecution so long to submit the report, when three months have already passed since it was completed, Inspector Angelo Gafà admitted that "police investigations were still ongoing, and that they were stalled due to matters beyond our control." The statement was indicative of the prosecution's intentions to arraign the former Commissioner.

Circumstantial

According to a senior source at the Attorney General's Office, Dalli is to be arraigned on the basis of testimony gathered by a representative of Swedish Match, who claimed that Zammit had asked him for the €60 million bribe, and that the payment had to be made to "his boss".

According to the witness, Zammit also asked for the chief executive of Swedish Match to meet 'his boss' "anywhere in the world."

It remains unknown if the Maltese police, who re-opened the investigation and said to have worked "in parallel" to the original OLAF report, found any other evidence implicating John Dalli.

Once the report is submitted to the Maltese courts this week, it will be clear as to how far did the OLAF investigators get to conclude what Giovanni Kessler had told the media in Brussels last October that there was "unambiguous circumstantial evidence" that Dalli allegedly knew Zammit had asked for money to influence legislation under the former Commissioner's portfolio.