A court has found sufficient evidence at face value for former EU Commissioner John Dalli to stand trial.

Dalli is pleading not guilty to trading in influence and attempted bribery concerning a €60 million bribe his former aide, the late Silvio Zammit, had allegedly solicited to help lift a ban on snus.

The court concluded on Friday that there was enough prima facie evidence - evidence at first glance - for him to be placed under a bill of indictment.  Dalli's lawyers did not contest the decree.

During Friday's hearing, a court heard that British American Tobacco (BAT) Malta had received a request from its overseas head office to set up contact with Dalli on behalf of European Smokeless Tobacco lobby, ESTOC.

The request was forwarded to BAT from the company’s head office in Greece seeking a channel of contact with the former commissioner.

A former sales manager at the local tobacco company recalled how his assistance had been sought by his superiors in Greece. 

The request was communicated to Zammit, who ran a restaurant in Sliema.

Later, Zammit asked for an agenda for the proposed meeting, testified Charles Saliba, the former manager at BAT Malta.

The agenda was sent to Dalli from the tobacco company’s head office and a meeting was scheduled for August.

Meeting in Gozo

On the appointed date, Saliba accompanied ESTOC official Tomas Hammargren to the meeting at the Kempinski hotel in Gozo where Dalli was apparently spending a summer break. 

During that meeting, Hammargren had presented the commissioner with a study on smokeless tobacco and had also showed him some snus samples.

“Dalli listened, thanked us and said nothing,” said the witness, when answering questions by AG lawyer Antoine Agius Bonnici. 

The meeting lasted around 15 minutes.

Probed about communication exchanged between ESTOC and the tobacco company, the witness could not supply further details, stating that his involvement was limited to establishing contact with Dalli. 

Since Zammit used to sell their products at his shop and was regularly visited by their salesman, he could help to get in touch with the former commissioner.

“Why did you choose Zammit out of all your clients?” asked the prosecuting lawyer.

“Because he used to say that he knew Dalli,” replied the witness who told the court that he had only met Dalli once at that meeting.

On that occasion, he was “just an intermediary” acting upon a request from his bosses abroad and his role was “to get Hammargren and Dalli together”.

The witness said that the meeting had taken place at the hotel bar.

“So it was in a public place not in some closed room,” stepped in defence lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell. 

“Yes,” confirmed the witness. 

His former colleague, Clint Bajada, currently manager at BAT Malta, also testified briefly on Friday.

Saliba, who was his superior back in 2010, had said that Zammit could help him set up a meeting with Dalli. 

So Bajada put the request to Zammit who called him some five months later asking, “Are you the one who asked for that meeting?” 

Bajada had rather casually brushed off the question, telling Zammit not to bother as “quite a long time had lapsed” since they first spoke. 

But Zammit replied that he “already told him [Dalli]” and so the meeting was arranged.

On the appointed day, Bajada had accompanied Saliba and “the foreigner who came from abroad” to Gozo.

But he had waited outside in the car for some 15 minutes while the other two went into the hotel and, therefore, could not supply further information about the meeting.

Friday’s court hearing was actually the first time he was seeing Dalli, explained Bajada, identifying the former politician through media reports.

“So, in this case, the meeting was so important that Zammit had forgotten who asked for it,” Tonna Lowell sarcastically remarked. 

The first witness was briefly called back to explain why the meeting had taken place in Gozo.

“Zammit had told us that Dalli was to be in Gozo and so we could meet him there,” Saliba said. 

Police investigations

Former assistant commissioner Michael Cassar also testified on Friday.

In 2012, he was summoned by his superior, then police commissioner John Rizzo, who told him about a meeting that was scheduled with then Attorney General Peter Grech and his deputy (now magistrate) Donatella Frendo Dimech about an OLAF report concerning an alleged €60 million bribe to lift the ban on snus. 

That report had concluded that there was a case of trading in influence in respect of Silvio Zammit, but further investigations were called for in respect of Dalli and lawyer Gayle Kimberly. 

That was how police investigations kicked off.

Various persons were arrested, their statements recorded on tape and duly sealed. 

The court on Friday appointed an IT expert to convert those tapes into CD format for transcription purposes. 

Cassar testified that it was Zammit who had told Kimberly that the snus ban could be lifted at a cost running into “six zeros”.

During a subsequent meeting between Zammit and Swedish Match representative Johan Gabrielsson, Zammit allegedly mentioned the €60 million figure.

But when Gabrielsson reported back to his superiors, he was told to break off all contact with Zammit.

Former deputy commissioner Joseph Cachia also testified briefly about his involvement in the bribery investigation.

Sufficient prima facie evidence for Dalli to stand trial

At the end of Friday’s sitting, the court decreed that there was sufficient prima facie evidence for Dalli to stand trial. 

The prosecution informed the court that OLAF officials were expected to testify.

The case continues in March.

Superintendent James Grech and AG lawyer Antoine Agius Bonnici prosecuted. Lawyers Stefano Filletti was also defence counsel.