Former European commissioner John Dalli was alerted by his former canvasser Silvio Zammit that he was being investigated by EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, despite having explicitly denied this under questioning two years ago.

The information emerges from an internal police document which was tabled in Parliament this week by the head of the Security Service, Michael Cassar, who formed part of the investigating team at the time of the police’s own probe back in December 2012.

Mr Dalli was never formally charged but Mr Zammit is facing charges of bribery and trading in influence over allegations that he asked for €60 million from lobbyists to help lift an EU ban on the smokeless tobacco snus while Mr Dalli was EU commissioner for health.

When Mr Dalli was first formally questioned by OLAF on July 16, 2012, he was asked specifically if he had ever been told about the investigation by anybody else other than the anti-fraud office itself.

He denied this categorically: “No, absolutely not. I have neither been contacted by anybody, nor taken initiative to contact anyone.”

However, in a police report presented to Parliament by Mr Cassar, this is contradicted.

How do you know what I told the police?

In considering whether to charge Mr Dalli, the police evaluated, among other things “Hon. Dalli’s repeated denial to OLAF of any knowledge of these investigations when it resulted that he was actually made aware of these investigations by Silvio Zammit at least since the 6th of July 2012.”

The document reveals for the first time that the decision to arraign Mr Dalli was discussed and concluded during two meetings on December 3 and 6, which were attended by former police commissioner John Rizzo, the Attorney General Peter Grech, Deputy AG Donatello Frendo Dimech, Deputy Police Commissioner Joe Cachia and Inspector Angelo Gafà – the then assistant police commissioner Michael Cassar could not attend as he was away.

Times of Malta had reported on July 2 last year that Mr Dalli had admitted to Maltese investigators that Mr Zammit – who was interrogated well before Mr Dalli – had in fact alerted him to the probe.

However, when asked about this by this newspaper, Mr Dalli simply questioned where the information was coming from.

“How do you know what I told the police? Now you must tell me how you know this from the police? No, no, I am asking you. I won’t speak to you any more... you are telling me that the police told you... I am going to stop here...” he had said.

Although the document was presented to Parliament by Mr Cassar on Wednesday, when he was testifying before a parliamentary committee, it was actually made public by Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil and only emerged yesterday during a tit-for-tat between Dr Busuttil and Mr Dalli.

Mr Cassar was testifying in a case of breach of privilege raised by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat against Dr Busuttil after the latter alleged in Parliament that Mr Rizzo’s successor Peter Paul Zammit had decided not to prosecute Mr Dalli because of political pressure.

The former EU commissioner yesterday claimed that sections of the media had missed the crux of Mr Cassar’s evidence.

“Mr Cassar stated unequivocally that the evidence the police had against me was circumstantial and would not have led to a conviction. He said, ‘you do not arraign people in court when you know that you will not have a conclusion’.”

Mr Cassar, however, emphasised the fact that he did not believe that Mr Dalli would be convicted “if charged separately” and not together with Mr Zammit.

With this “new twist” and the fact that Dr Busuttil was “in agreement with the tobacco lobby on all aspects they were pushing against my directive, it is now time for Dr Busuttil to make an apology,” Mr Dalli said, threatening a law suit.

Dr Busuttil retorted in kind, pointing out that on the second anniversary of the resignation yesterday, he should be the one to make the apology. He said that just as he was not afraid of the Prime Minister’s “attempt at gagging” him through the breach of privilege complaint, so he would not be afraid of his “consultant” – a dig at the fact Dr Muscat had appointed Mr Dalli his consultant on the health sector shortly after being elected in March 2013.

The process of his arraignment, Dr Busuttil said, stopped when Dr Muscat became Prime Minister.

Dr Muscat has consistently denied having applied any pressure in connection with this case.

When Dr Busuttil had made his claim in Parliament, he had asked him to substantiate it or take it back.

Meanwhile, Mr Cassar yesterday wrote to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia complaining that he felt misquoted by certain sections of the press.

Mr Cassar had said that when Peter Paul Zammit became Police Commissioner he had gone to brief him about his cases since he would be moving on from the Economic Crimes Unit to take his appointment as head of the Security Service.

At that moment, Mr Zammit did not show much interest in the cases, he said.

He pointed out that in the press reports this was relayed to mean that he took no interest in the John Dalli case when, in actual fact, he had referred to all cases.

Moreover, he argued, there were other investigators who had worked on the case that the new Commissioner ­– who had just taken on his new job and was overwhelmed – could consult later.

“It is clear that I never wanted to say or said that Mr Zammit did not show interest in this case because he had a point of reference to consult with whenever he wanted to,” Mr Cassar said.