Silvio Zammit wants his case re-examined

Silvio Zammit, the man accused of trying to influence tobacco legislation that was piloted by John Dalli when he was European Commissioner has filed a judicial protest against the Police Commissioner, the Attorney General, the Justice and Home Affairs minister and the Prime Minister asking for his case to be re-examined.

In a judicial protest presented today by Zammit's lawyer Edward Gatt, the former canvasser for John Dalli and former Sliema deputy mayor for the PN argued that since the cases against John Dalli and Maltese lobbyist Gayle Kimberley's had been dropped, his case should also be re-examined.

The judicial letter asked the authorities to re-open the investigations at the earliest and ensure that justice is done with Zammit in the Attorney General's pending case against him.

Zammit stands charged with trading in influence, corruption and money laundering and after being arrested and last year was kept in jail for two weeks and released on bail on a deposit of €25,000 and a personal guarantee of €75,000.

The judicial protest explains that Zammit was investigated by the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF and the Maltese Police in breach of his fundamental rights over "false" accusations.

It also noted that Zammit was approached by lawyer and Swedish Matych lobbyist Gayle Kimberly to set up one meeting with former Europan Commissioner John Dalli to present her case in favour of dropping the ban on snus tobacco. The letter also says that Zammit was instructed on the lobbying fee he should request, a fee which Kimberly would share with Zammit. Dalli, was unaware of any fees Zammit and Kimberly were requesting.

Despite lobbying is legal and recognised throughout Europe, Zammit ended up "arrested and arraigned in court on charges which do not in any way reflect what really happened," the judicial letter added.

The letter also noted that Zammit spent time under arrest in jail and had to pay "astronomical" amounts of money to be granted bail, figures which had never been asked for in other more serious cases.

Zammit also holds that he was used as bait by the previous Nationalist administration to get to John Dalli. The judicial protest points out that the PN government had put OLAF and the Police under immense pressure to take action against Zammit "to get at Dalli."

"Unfortunately, former Police Commissioner John Rizzo and other police officials, facilitated the government's plan against Zammit to please the previous administration."

Although the court found no evidence to proceed against Gayle Kimberley, the case against Zammit was upheld to "damage John Dalli." The judicial letter noted that Zammit was left to his own devices in a serious criminal case while all other involved parties were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Since the authorities had reopened the investigations, the same should be done with Zammit's case "to finally ensure that justice is done" with Zammit and cease using the Police and Court to damage somebody over issues which have nothing to do with justice, the letter said.

If the "abusive" process is not closed it would mean that the authorities "legitimise the previous administration's illegal actions and discriminate between Zammit and the other parties who had their cases reopened and subsequently dropped.