The former lead investigator in the Dalligate scandal has raised suspicions about political manoeuvring that may have blocked criminal investigations into the case locally.
The former director-general of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Giovanni Kessler, said that when Labour first swept back to power in early 2013, political moves were carried out, which ostensibly killed any investigation into former European Commissioner John Dalli.
Kessler said that one of the first decisions then prime minister Joseph Muscat had taken was to remove police commissioner John Rizzo and replace him with Peter Paul Zammit.
“It looks like Peter Paul Zammit had been put there on purpose to close off the case, and that is actually what he did,” Kessler said, adding that Zammit had then dismissed the evidence and simply archived the investigation which lay dormant for years.
Kessler was in Malta last month to testify against Dalli.
The former European health commissioner stands charged with trading in influence and attempted bribery over an alleged €60 million bribe requested by his former aide, Silvio Zammit, to help lift an EU-wide ban on snus tobacco back in 2012.
Snus is only available for sale in Sweden under a derogation. It is otherwise banned in Europe.
Dalli had stepped down as commissioner in October 2012 over allegations that he was aware that Zammit had asked for a bribe from a tobacco company to modify European Union legislation.
Zammit was charged over the case but died before the process was concluded.
Speaking on a local long-form podcast run by Jon Mallia, Kessler said that although it only took then European Commission president José Manuel Barroso a few days to force Dalli’s resignation, it took several years for the Maltese authorities to act.
He said he had handed over his investigative file to the Maltese authorities in October 2012, at the same time he had handed it over to Barroso.
While then police chief Rizzo had shown an interest, even flying to Brussels to carry out his own investigation, the matter seemed to stop dead in its tracks when Labour was elected in March the following year.
Kessler said that Dalli had avoided travelling at the time, citing health problems, but had made a suspicious recovery around March 2013.
Soon later, new police commissioner Zammit would go on national television to dismiss the case, Kessler said.
What followed, the former investigator said, was a media campaign to discredit the investigation into Dalli by the OLAF office.
Asked if he had ever spoken to Zammit about this issue, Kessler said he had and that he was “rather unhappy” with his “unprofessional behaviour”.
The podcast runs for just under three hours in which Kessler also talks about his experience, having been a specialised anti-mafia prosecutor in Italy.