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.”

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