Secret chats hint at conspiracy against John Dalli

More secret chats between a number of officials at the Office of the Prime Minister and the European Commission representation in Valletta have emerged. The chats focused on former European Commissioner John Dalli before and after his resignation in October 2012.

MaltaToday is in possession of a series of instant messaging logs also in the possession of the Malta Police in which five users are involved. Each person is listed under a username which remains unchanged throughout the series of chats.

The secret chats, dated February and March 2012, in which Dalli is consistently referred to as 'JDALLIBA' (a play on words making reference to the colloquial term for sperm), a number of persons discussed blogs on John Dalli.

One of the persons involved in the chats, 'L.O.U.I.S', who chatted from a station at the second floor at the office of the Prime Minister at Castille, was also accused by Dalli's lawyer of having been behind a series of blogs on Dalli in April.

lice Commissioner John Rizzo to investigate a series of anonymous blogs that had attacked him some time in February, when his name was being floated as a possible candidate for the party leadership. John Rizzo - who is being accused in a separate court protest of being behind a plot to prove at all costs that John Dalli was involved. John Rizzo, who has since been replaced by a new Commissioner, had never investigated the secret chats.

In one extract, littered with grammatical mistakes and poorly written Maltese and dated 15 February, 'L.O.U.I.S' writes: "x'qed tame! Biz-zobb ta JDALLIBA blogs. Qaluli Il illum trid tupdetja!" ("What are you doing with the fucking JDALLIBA blogs? I was told that you have to update today!")

In reply, a person going by the name of 'MASSF' said: "I'm busy with the LP project, will work on JDL this evening."

A few seconds later 'L.O.U.I.S' replied: "thalijiex tahrabilna, fimtni?" ("don't let it slip through our fingers, got it?")

'MASSF' replied : "mhux ovvja, x'ghamiltli fuq il$$$$." ("obviously, what have you done about the$$$$?")

In another sequence recorded on 3 February 2012, a person called 'MART' reassured 'L.O.U.I.S': "inti mhux dejjem fidi hallejt! Issa nahdmu jien." ("You have always trusted me. I will now take care of him.")

In return, 'L.O.U.I.S' replied: "iva, imam Situation tight and pressure piling on me." ("yes, but the situation is tight and pressure is piling on me.")

As already revealed earlier this week by MaltaToday, two users involved in the chats went by the name of 'L.O.U.I.S' and DR. GK. 

MaltaToday is reliably informed that the username 'L.O.U.I.S' was traced to a Samsung device used at the Office of the Prime Minister.

As for the identity of 'DR. GK', the initials coincidently match with two protagonists in the John Dalli case: the Italian EU's anti-fraud office chief Giovanni Kessler and Maltese lawyer and lobbyist Gayle Kimberly.

A particular sequence shows a series of messages exchanged sent by 'L.O.U.I.S' to 'DR. GK' on 15 October 2012. One day later, Dalli met Barroso in Brussels, where Barroso asked Dalli to resign, threatening that he would dismiss him if he didn't comply.

Records of the secret chats on 21 October 2012, show L.O.U.I.S write: "Cari Amici, Dobbiamo incontriamo questa settimana o la prossima. Fatemi sapere, ma il meeting e urgente." ("Dear friends, we need to meet this week or next. Let me know, but the meeting is urgent.") The transcripts of these 'secret chats' were passed on to Rizzo by John Dalli, who received them from an anonymous source.

Following the publication of the initial report on Wednesday, Kessler denied any involvement in a series of online chats.