Embattled minister Carmelo Abela has given a statement to the police about claims linking him to the failed HSBC bank heist in June 2010.

The minister said in a Facebook post on Monday evening that he had gone to police headquarters of his own volition to give a statement where he denied the allegations being made against him.

He also handed a copy of a sworn declaration he had earlier presented in court in libel proceedings against Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who had linked him to the claims first made by Vince Muscat, one of the Daphne Caruana Galizia hitmen.

Abela has sued Azzopardi for libel and he said on Monday that the Nationalist MP had not yet replied to his complaint.

Abela said he would have expected Azzopardi to also go to the police with his allegations and he expected the police themselves to investigate the PN MP's claims.

The  Times of Malta reported on Sunday how Abela is facing a fresh police investigation into claims he was one of the inside men who helped facilitate the botched heist.

Abela was notified last week by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti about a police request to gain access to testimony he had given behind closed doors during the compilation of evidence against two men charged with carrying out the violent heist.

When confronted about this testimony last week by Times of Malta, the minister said he did not remember ever having taken to the witness stand about the heist.

Abela was one of a small group of people within the bank who had access to security equipment that generates key cards suspected to have been used by the robbers to gain access to sensitive areas within the bank’s cash centre.

At the time, Abela was a senior insurance and statistics officer within the security department, where the equipment was held.

The Nationalist Party on Monday afternoon said Carmelo Abela’s position is no longer tenable in light of the police investigation.