Malta’s former EU Commissioner John Dalli has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission calling for the annulment of his resignation and demanding compensation.

Mr Dalli was forced to resign last October after an OLAF investigation found “unambiguous circumstantial evidence” that he was aware that a person close to him was using his name for bribes to change the EU’s tobacco law.

The court case against the Commission was filed in front of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg by three foreign lawyers representing Mr Dalli last December. Details of the case emerged only yesterday as the information was uploaded on the ECJ’s website.

Mr Dalli, whose whereabouts are unknown and who has been out of the country for weeks on grounds that he cannot travel due to medical reasons, has not given any information on the lawsuit. Attempts to contact him for the past weeks have proved unsuccessful.

According to the lawsuit, Mr Dalli is seeking the annulment of “an oral decision of his termination of office with immediate effect, taken by the President of the Commission.”

Among his pleas, Mr Dalli’s lawyers are arguing that Jose Manuel Barroso’s decision to force Mr Dalli to resign was in violation of the EU treaties “as the challenged decision has been adopted by a non-competent author”; that legal procedures were not followed and that Mr Dalli was unable to make any appraisal and assessment of the facts to be held against him.

Mr Dalli’s lawyers are also alleging violation of the principle of proportionality, and questioning whether any possible other measure less punitive was explored.

According to the European Commission, Mr Dalli was asked by Mr Barroso to resign as he considered his position untenable following the OLAF findings. Mr Barroso had said that Mr Dalli agreed, in front of two witnesses, to hand in his resignation.

But Mr Dalli claims that President Barroso forced him to resign and gave him just 30 minutes to do so before he would have sacked him.

Last month, The Times reported that the police had planned to arraign Mr Dalli over the bribery case during the first week of the year but have since held off due to his reported ill-health.

It was reported that Mr Dalli was taken ill at a Brussels hospital and provided the police with medical certificates saying he cannot travel.

The Times has repeatedly sent questions to Mr Dalli to confirm these reports and to state when he planned returning back to Malta.