John Dalli is to face charges over an alleged attempt by his aide to solicit a €60 million bribe back when he was European Commissioner for Health.

PN MP Jason Azzopardi said on Facebook that the case will be brought up next week.

In comments to Times of Malta, Dalli said the charges are part of a campaign mounted against him in the past weeks.

"A few days ago, the police filed a criminal case against John Dalli on the alleged fraud of €60 million, and that will start to be heard before a magistrate next week," Azzopardi said.

"As now we want to get off the grey list, we start pulling those cases from the shelf that (Joseph) Muscat had ordered to be hidden."

One of Dalli's associates at the time had allegedly asked for a €60 million bribe from a tobacco company to help overturn a ban in the EU on snus. Dalli was forced to quit from the european Commission in 2012 as a result of this, after an investigation by OLAF - the EU's anti-fraud office, had uncovered the bribery attempt. 

After Dalli resigned from the Commission in 2012, Joseph Muscat (once elected) had appointed him as a consultant on health reform.

In his post, Azzopardi spoke out about how former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had removed John Rizzo from the post of Police Commissioner after winning the election in 2013. "Had John Rizzo been there "they wouldn't have gone through with Panama, with VGH, passport sales, Electrogas, a number of direct orders, and there wouldn't have been the impunity that killed Daphne."

"Rizzo was known to be honest, a man with absolute integrity who does not look at faces."

"Instead, they wanted a puppet. This was part of the roadmap agreed upon prior to 2013."

He said that in "December 2012 and January 2013, a memo was written by Anglu Gafa, Joe Cachia and Michael Cassar, to John Rizzo saying why John Dalli had to be charged with alleged fraud of more than €60 million."

"You know what happened. The first decision that the then new Commissioner, a puppet of Joseph Muscat took in March 2013, was to invite John Dalli for coffee (a pretend interrogation).

The then new Commissioner decided that there was no case against Dalli, Azzopardi said.

"A few days ago, the police filed a criminal case against John Dalli on the alleged fraud of €60 million, and that will start to be heard before a magistrate next week.

"As now we want to get off the grey list, we start pulling those cases from the shelf that Muscat had ordered to be hidden.

"We now await the case to take its course and hope that justice will be done according to law."