Ex-European health commissioner John Dalli on Tuesday distanced himself from a former aide charged with soliciting a €60 million bribe to overturn an EU ban on Snus, a smokeless tobacco.
His former aide Silvio Zammit, who has since died, was charged in December 2012 with soliciting the bribe.
An investigation by Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office, concluded that circumstantial evidence indicated Dalli was aware of Zammit’s attempt to solicit the bribe from tobacco lobbyists.
The Olaf probe led to Dalli’s downfall as commissioner in October 2012.
He was only charged over the alleged bribery a decade later.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Dalli distanced himself from Zammit’s alleged solicitation of the bribe.
“He had his own plan of what he wanted to do. I was not part of it. Absolutely….What Silvio Zammit said, it was his own doing. He was selling himself,” Dalli said.
Zammit was recorded soliciting the multi-million-euro bribe in a call with tobacco lobbyists.
Dalli welcomed the news that a …