Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/416739
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2014 4 News CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A lawyer for Silvio Zammit has confirmed that the email, whose details were also published in a Brussels online news website earlier last week, have been in the hands of police investigators for months. But Kimberley's lawyer claims the email is false and that her client was duly questioned about it. "It was evi- dent that it is a fabricated email. My client will be writing to the EUOb- server to protest about their publi- cation of an email that they did not have the common decency or the professionalism to confront her with before it was published. It is not clear what their agenda is, but the search for the truth may not be very high on the list," de Marco said. "The police had full access to my client's com- puters and server, as well as that of Silvio Zammit, and this email simply did not exist." On his part, Zammit's lawyer, Ed- ward Gatt said that police have never raised any doubt about the content of the email, and that the evidence should be presented in court. "We have waited for months to have them presented in court." Following an investigation by the EU's anti-fraud agency OLAF, inves- tigators pointed Kimberley out as a possible accomplice in the €60 mil- lion bribe request. Maltese police however have never prosecuted her and she is currently a witness in the case brought against Zammit, 49. He denies the charges of having asked for a multi-million bribe from Swedish Match and the European Smokeless Tobacco Coun- cil (Estoc). The disputed email could further illustrate the extent of the relation- ship between Kimberley, 39, and Zammit, a former deputy mayor of Kimberley's hometown, Sliema. Kimberley was paid €5,000 by Swedish Match to provide them with access to former European health commissioner John Dalli. Zammit, who was already known to Swed- ish Match as a man close to Dalli, communicated with Kimberley to arrange a meeting with the commis- sioner. At the time of their investigation, OLAF investigators realised that Kimberley had lied about having taken part in a 10 February, 2012 meeting with Dalli at his Portomaso office, in which she alleged that money was demanded to influence EU tobacco rules. On 13 February, 2012, she met Swedish Match public affairs direc- tor Johan Gabrielsson at Silvio Zam- mit's pizzeria in Sliema, where she warned him that Zammit had brought up the issue of money dur- ing the fictitious meeting, and that he would again ask the Swedish firm for money to reverse the snus ban. "During the conver- sation Kimberley was passive," Gabrielsson had recalled to OLAF. "When I returned to the hotel I called my boss Patrik Hildings- son… my boss was also astonished. Later the same day I had dinner with Kimberley and her hus- band, and we talked about the situa- tion. I again expressed my astonish- ment and I insisted on my opinion and that this would never be ac- cepted. Kimber- ley's husband followed the c o n v e r s a t i o n with certain a m u s e m e n t and found the situation was exciting." That same day, Kimber- ley and Zam- mit spoke in a telephone c o n v e r s a t i o n that lasted nine minutes, and again the next day in the evening. According to the timing of the email in question, the next day Kim- berley would have mentioned the al- leged million-euro figure that Zam- mit had proposed to Gabrielsson. K i m b e r l e y and Zammit stayed in al- most daily tel- ephonic con- tact through February and March. But even after Swed- ish Match officials told K i m b e r l e y that the com- pany was not i n t e r e s t e d , she featured in a second lobbying effort: the one in which Zammit communicated with Estoc, whose chairman at the time was Swedish Match's Patrik Hildingsson. On 21 February, Gabrielsson told Kimberley not to pursue any contact with Zammit. The two texted each other several times, and communi- cated telephonically in March. An email dated 29 February shows Kimberley's husband Matthew, for- warding a lobbying proposal to Zam- mit, suggesting that he forwards it to Inge Delfosse, the Estoc secretary- general. "Silvio, suggest you forward this to Inge. Gayle is in copy. You may like to wait for her input before send- ing." The email contained a list of serv- ices that Matthew Kimberley's com- pany You Rock Ltd could offer Estoc, with Gayle Kimberley's resumé at- tached. Gayle Kimberley, who has been questioned by OLAF on the matter, has defended herself saying that Zammit was helping her out with a job at British American Tobacco – with whom Zammit had already had dealings – and that he misused it in his second lobbying attempt. But another example of the re- lationship between the Kimber- leys and Zammit was a €3,540 payment that You Rock Ltd paid into Zammit's bank account on 2 March, 2012. Zammit sent the email on 8 March. Delfosse, upon reading the email, informed Hildingsson, who she said warned her to "be careful with Mr Zammit". Police mull court exhibit of Gayle Kimberley's lawyer says the contents of the email, published by EUObserver.come are false, but police are still mulling where to exhibit the communication in court