BERNE Peter Hess, president of the Swiss Lower House of Parliament, resigned his seat on the board of British American Tobacco International on Monday amid media criticism of his links to the world's number two cigarette firm, Reuters said. Britain last year launched an official investigation into claims that British American Tobacco PLC was implicated in cigarette smuggling in Asia and Latin America in the early 1990s. BAT International is a Swiss-based unit of BAT.