Silvio Zammit claims court proceedings have breached his rights

Former PN canvasser Silvio Zammit has requested a court to declare the compilation of evidence against him closed, saying the Attorney General was breaching his human rights by not doing so.

51-year-old Zammit, who is accused of requesting a €60 million bribe from a Swedish tobacco company to influence the EU snus directive, complained that his case has been unnecessarily drawn out by the prosecution's refusal to declare its evidence closed. The compilation of evidence against him has been dragging on for 4 years.

In an application filed in the court of Magistrates yesterday, Zammit explained how prosecuting officer Jonathan Ferris had declared that the only remaining prosecution witness was Inge Delfosse, who however was refusing to travel to Malta and testify as she risked incriminating herself.

Delfosse was an employee with tobacco producer Swedish Match and had been mentioned as the person who informed Zammit of the possibilty of a meeting with former EU commissioner John Dalli in the hope of securing a change in EU law regulating tobacco.

Zammit said that because of this, the police cannot close its evidence and the Attorney General may continue to demand that she testify, in full knowledge that this was not going to happen.

This was a breach of his right to a fair hearing, argued Zammit's lawyers Edward Gatt and Kris Busietta. The Attorney General realistically had no other option but to declare the evidence closed, say the lawyers, and the fact that he had refused an invitation to do so by the Court of Magistrates was a challenge to the authority of that court.

He requested the question of the breach of his human rights be referred to the First Hall of the Civil Court in its consitutional jurisdiction.