I refer to the article appearing in The Malta Independent entitled "Dalli refuses to hand over copy of articles purporting to have "attacked" him in 2004" (TMID 20 October 2014).

I think you did go over the top in that all this information is in the public domain.  A search in the digital archive of the times of malta and in your archive would pull them out.

Secondly, I presented the declaration in court two days before I issued the press release and not seven days before as stated in your article.  But in a superficial way, you went by the date when the declaration was prepared and not with the date that it was actually presented.

Thirdly, you bring up cases of the Iranian Shipping line and what you call the ticketing scandal.  You did not have the decency to also state that on all these counts I was cleared by Gonzi himself, before my resignation (the Iranian Shipping line) and after the auditor's report which stated that there was no scandal after all.

These two issues were in fact a smokescreen to the Zahra report.  Gonzi never tried to ask to police to investigate the two issues you mentioned.  But he did send the Zahra report to be investigated by the police.  On this basis he told me that "He could not have a minister under investigation."

John Dalli

St Julian's