New Commissioner of Police: Dalli case still open

The new Commissioner of Police has vowed to carry on with the investigation into bribery allegations that led to the resignation of former EU health commissioner John Dalli.

Peter Paul Zammit, a former police superintendent who was drafted back in the force as Commissioner by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, said the Dalligate case was still open.

"I know that John Dalli is in Malta. I intend to speak to him. But in good time: these investigations need their time and this case is still open," Zammit said on breakfast show TVAM.

Zammit did not explicitly confirm whether charges against Dalli were pending. Earlier in the case, when businessman Silvio Zammit was charged before the Maltese courts with bribery, trading in influence and money laundering, police inspector Angelo Gafa indicated that the police would be proceeding against Dalli.

The former commissioner however flew to Brussels, first to file a complaint of unfair dismissal against the European Commission in the European Court of Justice, as well as a libel complaint against Swedish Match; and then stayed in the country for medical treatment.

He returned to Malta earlier this week.

Dalli resigned on 16 October 2012 on the strength of a covering letter from the EU's anti-fraud agency OLAF, which claimed that he was aware that Zammit had solicited a bribe from Swedish Match, to reverse an EU trading ban on snus.

Dalli denied being aware of these circumstances, and insists he was forced to resign before being granted access to the OLAF investigative report.