Kessler ‘had no right’ to carry out interrogation in Malta, Dalli - ‘Publish report’

OLAF director-general Giovanni Kessler had no authority to carry out an interrogation on Maltese territory, a senior police officer privy to the John Dalli investigation has told MaltaToday.

In comments that followed yesterday's presentation of the OLAF supervisory committee's annual report, which highlighted questionable legal practices employed by Kessler in his investigation of a bribery allegation, doubts have now been raised over the EU anti-fraud agency's investigation it carried out Malta during the summer of 2012.

Giovanni Kessler had come to Malta to interview businessman Silvio Zammit, who is today accused of having solicited a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match in return to influence tobacco laws that banned the sale of smokeless tobacco snus.

Kessler had been aided by Rita Schembri - then a member of OLAF's supervisory committee - who served as the head of the Prime Minister's internal audit and investigations department (IAID) and of the anti-fraud coordinating service (Afcos) which liaised with OLAF, in organising the interview.

The interview was carried out at the IAID offices in Valletta after Silvio Zammit was approached by Kessler and Schembri at his Sliema kiosk.

"I'm baffled at the amateurish interrogation methods employed by Kessler and the fact that he ignored his legal obligations," the senior police source told MaltaToday.

According to the same source, the interrogation of Zammit was carried out without any authority.

The claim is similar to the OLAF's supervisory committee's observation that Kessler's office may have obtained telephone records from the Maltese police when this not within OLAF's power to do so.

In a comment from Giovanni Kessler, an OLAF spokesperson said OLAF investigators are entitled to carry out interviews in the context of OLAF's administrative investigations in any EU member state, subject to the correct procedures being followed under EU law.

"These powers are to be found inter alia in Regulation 1073/1999 and Regulation 2185/1996.

"OLAF does not have criminal justice powers, which is presumably what your police officer contact means by 'interrogation', but it does have these administrative powers. OLAF has no comment to make on your speculation about which interview the police officer might have in mind," the spokesperson said.

It is still unclear as to what role the Nationalist administration had played in aiding the investigation carried out by the OPM's internal and audit investigations department, in assistance of the OLAF investigators.

The Maltese police have so far charged Silvio Zammit with bribery, money laundering, and trading in influence.

But the jury is still out on whether John Dalli, who has returned to Malta from Brussels where he was pursuing a case of unfair dismissal against the European Commission, will be charged in court.

Newly-appointed Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit has claimed he still intends speak to John Dalli on the case. "I know that John Dalli is in Malta. I intend to speak to him. But in good time: these investigations need their time and this case is still open," Zammit said recently on breakfast show TVAM.

Under pressure from MEPs who yesterday demanded that he resigns, OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler attempted to kick the ball into the Maltese authorities' court, by calling on the Attorney General to publish the OLAF investigative report, claiming it was important to quell the speculation about the investigation his office carried out.

Back on 17 October, 2012, the day after John Dalli resigned on the strength of a covering letter to the selfsame OLAF report, Kessler had told the press that OLAF had to first send its report to the Maltese Attorney General.

"We never disclose in public our reports, and that's the rule we will abide by in this case. Our report, as you know, where all these questions [made here] might be answered... has been sent to the Commission, and all the attachments and records of any investigative action is being sent to the Maltese Attorney General.

"The rules on privacy and on confidentiality are no longer our rules... [it's] the Maltese who are responsible."

In a comment to MaltaToday, former commissioner for health and consumer policy John Dalli said that it was his own opinion upon being asked to resign that the OLAF report be published in its entirety.

"I have always said, from the very start, that the OLAF report should be published immediately. I don't know why it's only now that Kessler is asking for this report to be made public. Much of the speculation about what exactly formed the bulk of this investigation, would have been answered straight away," Dalli told MaltaToday.

Kessler, who once claimed his investigative report contained "unambiguous circumstantial evidence" that Dalli was aware of Zammit's attempt to solicit a bribe, is now under pressure by MEPs from the budgetary control committee to resign.

On this point, a spokesperson for OLAF said that Kessler looked forward to the report being made public "in the context of the ongoing judicial proceedings in Malta."

"As he told the committee, as a matter of law OLAF may not publish the report itself since this is a matter for the Maltese authorities."

OLAF Supervisory Committee Annual Report 2012 by maltatoday