Thread by @simonvandorpe

NEW: Giovanni Kessler, head of @EUAntiFraud until 2017, was convicted to a suspended one-year prison sentence by a Belgian court this morning in a high-profile case that has been rocking the top of the EU establishment since 2012 🧵

What started as a fraud investigation into Maltese European Commissioner #JohnDalli became a battle to bring anti-fraud chief Kessler himself to justice.

Dalli was accused of having solicited - through a middle man, Sylvio Zammit - a €60M bribe from tobacco company #SwedishMatch. He was forced to step down in October 2012 by then @EU_Commission President #Barroso after a damning OLAF report

But #Dalligate soon became #Olafgate as the attention turned to how the Commission's fraud office had handled the investigation euobserver.com/rule-of-law/11…

Several MEPs in 2013 called for Kessler to step down after OLAF's own supervisory committee had questioned the legality of the methods employed during the probe run by Kessler maltatoday.com.mt/news/world/262…

But it took until 2023 to get a first judgment by the Belgian court because of a lengthy battle over Kessler's immunity from prosecution

The judgment today was all about what happened on 3 july 2013, when tobacco lobbyist Inge Delfosse called Zammit, the middle man, from OLAF's offices. Kessler was present and one of his subordinates recorded the conversation without Zammit's knowledge.

But Belgian criminal law prohibits recordings 'without the consent of all participants in the conversation'. Kessler, who claimed not to know the rule, is now convicted to a 1y sentence, which he will not need to serve unless he commits a new offense within 2 years

The court condemned the attitude of Kessler who 'stubbornly tried to avoid his responsibilities' by claiming to have been unaware of the applicable legislation.

'We are pleased that Kessler's responsibility has been established and that the court has taken note of the worrying attitude of Kessler, who appears to absolutely want to escape his responsibilities,' said Dalli's lawyer.

Dalli himself slammed his former employer for refusing to lift Kessler's immunity for other alleged procedural errors: 'If the Commission wants to be credible with ... the rule of law and human rights, it can't continue to refuse a proper scrutiny of the actions of its officers.'

Kessler can appeal the judgment with the Belgian court of appeal, in which case the statute of limitations on the facts risks expiring. Read the full story for free on our Dutch-language website today ftm.nl/artikelen/giov…