Former Police Commissioner John Rizzo told Magistrate Anthony Vella that he had wanted to arraign former EU Commissioner John Dalli and the Attorney General shared the same view.
Mr Rizzo was giving testimony in the case against Silvio Zammit, who is accused of trading in influence. Mr Zammit allegedly sought a bribe to bring about changes in the EU's Tobacco Directive, which Mr Dalli was responsible for.
Replying to questions by defence lawyer Edward Gatt, Mr Rizzo said there was a lot of pressure surrounding the case. The pressure came from the media and parliament, but he denied any pressure from the then prime minister.
Mr Rizzo said he did not discuss the case with former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi or any ministers.
Dr Gonzi never asked him about the case, and he only mentioned it to him in passing when the then prime minister asked to speak to him about Judge Ray Pace, who was involved in a separate case.
Mr Dalli stepped down from the European Commission after it was claimed that he knew of the alleged trading in influence. He denied the claims.
Mr Rizzo was also asked about Gayle Kimberly, the local representative of Swedish Match who according to an OLAF (the EU anti fraud agency) recommendation, should have been charged.
He said the police did not have enough evidence against her. Olaf had reached their own conclusions. The police started their own fresh investigations, and in fact, Olaf did not know many things which the police said. He spoke to Dr Kimberly three times and the police interviewed her in depth.
Rizzo said that when he was handed the report he had examined it for two days, and then organised an investigative team with Angelo Gafa, Michael Cassar, Joe Cachia.
Regarding Silvio Zammit, Rizzo said “I’d say that in 85% of his statement, he chose not to answer, or say that he would ‘see the truth emerge in court’”.
I believe that these telephone calls make a lot of sense. The former Commissioner of Police John Rizzo, who led investigations on the alleged bribery committed by Silvio Zammit, said he felt OLAF had rested on circumstantial evidence. “Having seen the call profiles, I think what was suspected made sense.”
Rizzo says he had asked the AG whether he could give call profiles to the permanent secretary – the AG gave a reply in the affirmative, and the police gave call profiles to Afcos.
Rizzo denied having been spoken to on this case by OPM officials, or Richard Cachia Caruana. “I don’t exclude there was interest on whether the case had finished… but no officials or ministers on the details of the case.
He said that the story started back in August 2010, when a British American Tobacco (BAT) representative asked Mr Zammit to organize a meeting with European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC) chairman Thomas Hammargren with John Dalli.
Towards the end of 2011, correspondence between Mr Zammit and ESTOC secretary-general Inge Delfosse started, continuing with a meeting in Sweden where Mr Zammit had lunch with Delfosse and Rupini Bergstrom. Mr Zammit had expressed the wish to represent Swedish Match, made himself appear to be influential with his knowledge of Gayle Kimberley and John Dalli, as well as Iosif Galea.
As it happened, Swedish Match’s vice-president of public affairs Johan Gabrielsson had already approached Kimberley – whom he knew since her days as a lawyer working for the European Council, where she worked with his wife – to represent the company in a meeting with Dalli.
Zammit and Kimberley had a common friend – Iosif Galea – like Gayle Kimberly an employee at the Lotteries and Gaming Authority.
In a first meeting, Mr Zammit, Iosif Galea, and Gayle Kimberly met Mr Dalli. Kimberley sent feedback to Mr Galea on the meeting.
Gayle Kimberly provided several points for Mr Zammit to make to John Dalli, for a meeting which took place on 10 February.
“It looks like it was during this meeting that a prize was mentioned for the removal of the ban on snus – Gayle Kimberly informed Mr Galea immediately of this fact, and Mr Galea came to Malta within a matter of days.
“Gayle Kimberly and Mr Galea met at Mr Zammit’s pizzeria, where Gayle Kimberly told Mr Galea that Swedish Match would have to pay €60 million to John Dalli to lift the ban.
Mr Zammit was refused the ‘bribe’ – and soon, he was in touch with Inge Delfosse on an attempt to make a new offer for an informal meeting with Mr Dalli “at a cost… he hung up the phone, and here Delfosse was informed that Zammit was the same person who had asked for the bribe from Swedish Match; so in the next call he made, Delfosse recorded the conversation, where Mr Zammit mentioned the sum of €10 million, which ESTOC took entirely to mean that this was meant for Mr Dalli.
“Here ESTOC decided to take the allegation to the European Commission.”
Mr Rizzo interrogated both Mr Zammit and Ms Kimberley at least three times, separately – “we spoke to anyone remotely linked to this case, in detail, and after evaluating all the evidence gathered – it was decided that we charge Mr Zammit”.