Repercussions of OLAF revelations discussed in Castille

The revelations from the European Parliament that the Maltese police force had suggested to whistleblowers Swedish Match not to disclose a misleading version of events into the Dalligate affair, was the subject of discussions inside Castille today with the prime minister, MaltaToday was informed.

A claim by Swedish Match public affairs director Johann Gabrielsson that a Maltese lobbyist, Gayle Kimberley, had lied about a meeting with John Dalli during which a middleman asked for a bribe; and that OLAF and the Maltese police were aware of this all along, are now the subject of attention at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The matter has raised questions over the Maltese police force's role in the OLAF investigations and the Commissioner of Police's stewardship of the investigation after the OLAF report was submitted to the Maltese Attorney General.

Gabrielsson claimed Kimberley lied to him about a second meeting she had with John Dalli at his Portomaso office back in February 2012, in which the commissioner was believed to have left the room while middleman Silvio Zammit - who brokered the meeting with Dalli - asked for a bribe to reverse an EU-wide snus ban.

"It was only during the long investigations with OLAF that [it turned out] that Gayle was not in the second meeting... [OLAF] had clearly already revealed this in investigations," Gabrielsson told Bové.

Gabrielsson said he was asked by OLAF to conceal his knowledge that the meeting never took place when he appeared before the European Parliament on 9 January.

"We had been told by OLAF that an investigation was going on in Malta, 'so keep to your version. Say what you have told us, what your version is, because there is a Maltese criminal investigation that should not be disturbed'. And this was what the Maltese police said as well.

"They said 'please be careful how you actually deal with this information. Try not to disturb the information'. The story I knew was already made official, which is why I took the decision to say the story the way I heard it."

Undue influence

In a comment to MaltaToday, the defence counsel for Silvio Zammit, who is being charged with trading in influence and money laundering, claimed the OLAF report was compiled with a view to bring down EU Commissioner John Dalli, and "subject to influence by the Maltese authorities."

Edward Gatt hit out at both OLAF and the Maltese police for conducting a "flawed investigation" into the alleged request for a €60 million bribe. "We are edging closer in proving how Dalli's forced resignation from the Commission and my client's arrest in December, were intentionally timed."

Gatt - who has read the OLAF report so far submitted only to the Attorney General, the Maltese police, and the parties involved in the charges against Zammit - said the report was "clearly flawed in its procedural approach, not to mention that it also breaches fundamental human rights, and Maltese laws."

"There are serious procedural flaws in the way searches were conducted, evidence collected, and how interrogations were handled. We will prove how all this has contributed to incorrect conclusions, not only by OLAF, but also by the Maltese police."

Gatt pointed out that the OLAF report actually recommends that lobbyist Gayle Kimberley be prosecuted, "but the Maltese police have declared last week that they were not intending to, unless they find new evidence."

Gatt said this detail fit like a glove with what was revealed in Brussels yesterday by Green MEP José Bové.

During the compilation of evidence against Zammit, Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar had revealed it was OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler who had approached Gayle Kimberley in a hotel in Portugal in June 2012, and interrogated her for almost seven hours.

After that meeting, Kimberley kept email contact with Kessler, and provided him with information related to her meetings with Zammit.

"We will be raising serious questions regarding the timing of all this," Gatt said. "My client was arrested while Tonio Borg was in Brussels facing his grilling by Euro MPs to replace John Dalli, and my client was charged the day after Lawrence Gonzi's government lost a vote of confidence in Parliament."