In the article entitled ‘Dalli tells court Gonzi threatened to appoint Cachia Caruana if he did not accept EC job’ last Saturday, it was reported that John Dalli had testified that former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi told him he only had himself to blame for personal attacks because he had chosen to contest the leadership of the Nationalist Party.

From the court transcript it transpires that what Mr Dalli actually said was that “six months after Lawrence Gonzi became prime minister he removed me from Cabinet and wanted to throw me into prison. They then began attacking me by saying that I only had myself to blame for the problems because I had never accepted the fact that I had lost the leadership campaign”.

In the same article it was also stated that Mr Dalli had been placed under investigation.

According to the transcript, Mr Dalli said: “I was asked to resign because according to Lawrence Gonzi he could not have a minister in Cabinet who was under investigation. When I confronted him and asked him... to give me details of this investigation, he looked blank and didn’t know what to say...

“This investigation took place on the basis of a report targeting me that I didn’t know of at the time but subsequently found out about... after [private investigator Joe] Zahra was taken to court.”

Mr Dalli testified that the Zahra report had falsely accused him of corruption in a major contract related to Mater Dei Hospital.

The private investigator was subsequently prosecuted for fabricating a report and jailed for 17 months. However, no police investigation into Mr Dalli over this issue took place.

During the course of his testimony Mr Dalli also said that, when he declined Dr Gonzi’s offer of the European Commissioner post, the then prime minister had told him he would offer it to Richard Cachia Caruana if Mr Dalli did not accept.

“He continued to chase me and eventually I agreed to be appointed commissioner,” Mr Dalli said.