Former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit went against the Attorney General’s advice to arraign former EU Commissioner John Dalli for his involvement in the snus case, a parliament committee heard today.
Testifying today during the privileges committee, former investigator Angelo Gafa said Mr Zammit did not act on the arrest warrant issued for John Dalli and Mr Dalli was never formally charged.
Mr Gafa had been instructed to arrest Mr Dalli by former Police Commissioner John Rizzo. He was unable to carry out the arrest as Mr Dalli was not in Malta at the time.
Mr Gafa said the Belgian Police spoke to Mr Dalli on 20 March, and the Malta Police felt that an international arrest warrant could be issued for Mr Dalli in order to bring him for questioning in Malta.
Mr Dalli claimed that he was medically unfit to travel and only returned to Malta when Mr Rizzo was removed from his post a month after the 2013 general election.
The committee is hearing a breach of privilege case filed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on claims made in Parliament by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil that Dr Muscat interfered in a police investigation on former EU Commissioner John Dalli.
The Prime Minister has categorically denied any interference on his part.
Mr Dalli resigned following a report by the EU’s anti-fraud agency Olaf, which implicated him in a €60 million bribery attempt.
Mr Gafa said there was an agreement between him and Mr Zammit to see how the case against Silvio Zammit panned out before deciding whether to take action against Mr Dalli.
The former inspector said he heard Mr Zammit saying the Dalli case was closed on the PBS programme Dissett.
Mr Gafa said the former Police Commissioner did not communicate this decision to him. Mr Gafa said he was not aware if Mr Zammit sought advice from the Attorney General on the matter.
He said Mr Zammit did not formally interrogate Mr Dalli. Rather, he spoke to him once on 21 May 2013 without reading him his rights, which meant that the conversation was not admissible in court.
He said the questions asked by Mr Zammit were very general.