Former EU Commissioner John Dalli has claimed that former Police Commissioner John Rizzo committed perjury during his testimony in the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In court today, Rizzo said that he, along with Attorney General Peter Grech, were ready to prosecute Dalli but were stopped due to Rizzo’s removal by the newly-elected Labour Party a week later.

The EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF had implicated Dalli for allegedly pursuing a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match, the leading producer of Swedish snus, but Dalli was never charged in Malta’s courts.

Rizzo revealed that police were planning to arrest and interrogate Dalli the moment the former EU Commissioner returned to Malta from Brussels.

He said that the day after his removal, Dalli returned to Malta.

In a statement, John Dalli claimed that he returned to Malta on Saturday 6th April 2013, a week before his removal.

On the OLAF investigation, Dalli insisted there had been foul play with the claim, saying that the Malta Police colluded with OLAF and the tobacco lobby to repeat false claims about Dalli.

Dalli closed his statement by saying that he had made reports to Rizzo that were not investigated.

“I will restrict myself to this for the time being,” Dalli said.