John Rizzo’s removal as police commissioner had nothing to do with the John Dalli bribery case, according to former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
The EU’s former lead investigator in the case, Giovanni Kessler, last week raised suspicions about political manoeuvres to kill the probe into the ex-European commissioner in early 2013.
Kessler, who was director-general of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), highlighted how one of the first decisions taken by Muscat was to remove Rizzo and replace him with Peter Paul Zammit.
While Rizzo was adamant Dalli should be prosecuted, Zammit killed the investigation, citing a lack of evidence.
Contacted for comment via e-mail, Muscat said the change in police commissioner was not a reflection on the work done by Rizzo but, rather a result of the “natural need for change” within the police after years of Rizzo at the helm.
“The change had nothing to do with the Dalli case and I never intervened in any police investigation,” Muscat said.
Shortly after Zammit confirmed he would not be pursuing charges, Muscat appointed Dalli as his consultant on health.
Dalli is now facing charges over an alleged attempt, made by his former aide, Silvio Zammit nine years ago, to solicit a €60 million bribe to help overturn an EU ban on the smokeless tobacco snus.
He stepped down as health commissioner in 2012 following an investigation by OLAF.
Silvio Zammit has since died.
'Media mercenaries'
Kessler, who was in Malta last month to testify against Dalli, accused Peter Paul Zammit of dismissing the evidence and simply archiving the investigation.
“It looks like Peter Paul Zammit had been put there on purpose to close off the case and that is actually what he did,” Kessler said during his interview on Jon Mallia’s podcast.
Zammit, in turn, has always maintained that the police lacked sufficient evidence to convert the OLAF probe into a prosecution.
In his own e-mailed comments to Times of Malta, Dalli lashed out at the “media mercenaries” in the service of the “raucous callous cabal”.
Dalli said the fact he enjoyed immunity as an EU official meant there was no need for him to call in any political favours to avoid prosecution.
He claimed political influence was being exerted in the opposite way, by those pushing the police in Malta to take action “when they knew it was illegal”.
Dalli further claimed that he had never used the “immunity card” because he has nothing to hide and wants the truth to come out.
Charges were filed against Dalli last year, nine years after the original report by OLAF.
The court case was further delayed until the attorney general filed a formal request asking for Dalli’s immunity to be lifted.