A new evidence note sent by the EU's anti-fraud agency, OLAF, lays down testimonies of two witnesses who stated that former European Commissioner John Dalli enquired about lifting the ban on smokeless tobacco, SNUS, at around the same time as his former canvasser, Silvio Zammit, allegedly asked for bribe to secure his outcome. This was reported in today's edition of The Sunday Times of Malta.

The witnesses, who work for the European Commission, were being interviewed as part of the investigation related to undeclared trips Dalli made to the Bahamas. The testimonies have now been passed to the Maltese Attorney General.

In reaction to the report, the former commissioner sent a press statement arguing that the report is based on the assumption that he only discussed SNUS with Silvio Zammit.

"In fact this is far from the truth. I had various discussions on snus with ministers of the Swedish government and with Swedish MEPs who were aggressively pressing for the liberalisation of the product. If OLAF had a shred of decency, they would have easily found this out as it is well documented," he said.

He continued, "Following these meetings, and at the time that I was concluding with my Services all aspects of our proposal for the revision of the Tobacco Directive, I could have asked for legal clarity on the issue from my services as it is my practice to follow up on my meetings. In fact, the concluding meeting between my Services and myself on the revision of the Tobacco Directive took place on the 28th February 2012."

Mr Dalli claimed that OLAF, and their collaborators in Malta, are merely clutching at straws to try to wiggle out the obvious conclusions being reached by all objective observers, that a fraud was perpetuated against him.

Meanwhile, The Malta Independent on Sunday revealed that OLAF is in the midst of a brand new investigation in connection with four trips he made to the Bahamas and at least one trip he made to Singapore. Link below.