Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/341807
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 JULY 2014 14 News Dalligate: A tale of incongruities (and confusion) When the police under Commissioner John Rizzo failed to charge John Dalli on bribery in the beginning of 2013, the police later under Peter Paul Zammit failed to close the investigation: did Malta's law enforcement bog down Dalligate? JURGEN BALZAN THE John Dalli case, which has yet again hit the headlines this past week, exposes a number of peculi- arities in the way Maltese politicians and the police carry out their busi- ness. The one common factor through- out the two-year saga – starting from the forced resignation of John Dalli over an investigation by OLAF to which he was not granted access – are the incongruities in police investigations that took place from October to December 2012, and as Malta passed under a new Labour government and a new Commis- sioner of Police. This week, the EU anti-fraud office director, Giovanni Kessler, high- lighted a number of inconsisten- cies in the way the police have dealt with the case, amplifying suspicions that the police act according to the whims of politicians, especially those in power. Dalli resigned from Commissioner on 16 October 2012, after an OLAF report alleged that there was cir- cumstantial evidence that he was aware of an attempt by an associ- ate of his, Silvio Zammit, to solicit a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match to lift an EU ban on the trade of snus. The leaked OLAF report – pub- lished by MaltaToday six months after the resignation – later showed that OLAF's conclusions were based on circumstantial evidence of tel- ephone logs between Dalli and Silvio Zammit, the man accused of solicit- ing the bribe; and that Dalli could not be identified as having authored a re- quest for a bribe. In Malta, Zammit was charged with bribery and trading in influence in December 2012, charges he denies. Dalli claims he was forced to re- sign by then Commission President José Manuel Barroso and is seeking to have this overturned, claiming a symbolic one euro in financial com- pensation. Dalli, who categorically denies all wrongdoing, has said Barroso called him in and demanded he resign with- in the half-hour, denying him his re- quest to give him 24 hours. The former PN minister claimed he was set up by the tobacco lobby in order to delay anti-smoking legis- lation. Investigations The John Dalli investigations were never a straightforward case for the police. While former police commissioner John Rizzo had claimed that there were grounds to arraign Dalli, his successor, Peter Paul Zammit – ap- pointed in March 2013 – first said that there was no case against Dalli and then, according to Kessler, said that the case was not closed. Zammit's assurances in the media that no case existed against Dalli led to the former minister being ap- pointed as a consultant on health af- fairs to Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat in 2013. But testifying in court later in that year, John Rizzo – summoned as a witness in the compilation of evi- dence against Zammit – said that when the case first emerged he had the go-ahead from Attorney General Peter Grech to press charges against Dalli over the alleged bribery. However, the police failed to press charges against Dalli, with Rizzo claiming in court that the former commissioner had been holed up in Brussels during the ensuing months seeking medical treatment, when Malta was in a prolonged, three- month electoral campaign. Although Silvio Zammit's charge sheet specifically referred to Dalli as the recipient of an alleged bribe, allegedly in return for lifting an EU ban on the sale of smokeless tobacco, the jury is still out as to why Rizzo never proceeded to press charges in December, given his clear mandate from the Attorney General. To confuse matters further, in June 2013, Rizzo's successor, Peter Paul Zammit, told MaltaToday that there was no criminal evidence to arraign or accuse former health commis- sioner John Dalli. Zammit said that the police investigations in relation to the OLAF report were ongoing, but there was no evidence to incrimi- nate Dalli. In September 2013, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil latched onto Rizzo's court testimony to claim that Dalli had availed himself of the change in government of 10 March, 2013 to return to Malta, hinting that Rizzo's successor planned to cancel the charges against Dalli under po- litical influence from the new Labour government. This landed the PN leader in hot water as Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat raised a breach of privilege com- plaint against Busuttil. During a parliamentary debate, Muscat asked Busuttil to withdraw or substantiate the allegation, but the Opposition leader refused to with- draw the allegation and the Prime Minister filed the breach of privilege complaint. Dalli vs Barroso: The 'semi-final' The Dalli investigation was never straightforward: while Rizzo claimed there were grounds to arraign Dalli, his successor, Peter Paul Zammit first said there was no case against Dalli and then, according to Kessler, said that the case was not closed. Barroso aide Johannes Laitenberger Joanna Darmanin, former Dalli aide EC head of legal services, Luis Romero Requena Frederik Vincent, former Dalli aide The arch-rivals meet tomorrow in the case Dalli instituted against the Commission over what he claims was his unfair dimissal • Also summonsed to testify are Barroso allies and former Dalli aides