Peter Paul Zammit, the former Police Commissioner who stopped the investigation into former EU Commissioner John Dalli has said that there was a lack of sufficient evidence to continue with the planned prosecution of his predecessor John Rizzo.

Appearing before the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Zammit detailed how he underwent a review of the evidence obtained, paying particularly close attention to a summary from the Supervisory Committee of OLAF.

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. Still, Dalli was never charged in Malta’s courts.

However, Zammit said that a subsequent report flagged severe shortcomings in the investigation and failings by local authorities.

He told the board that the Maltese Police failed because they made suppositions on the Dalli case, with evidence of OLAF never materialising.

“In four and a half months of investigation, we never found the telephone recordings against Dalli,” he said.

In court on Monday, 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.

Zammit revealed that he interrogated Dalli at length on the matter and was satisfied that there was no wrongdoing.

However, it should be noted that the review and subsequent investigation was mostly solely conducted by Zammit.

Lawyer of the Caruana Galizia family, Therese Comodini Cachia, uncovered a curious link between Dalli and Zammit.

“We are related by marriage or affinity to the fourth or fifth degree. He’s the third cousin of my wife,” Zammit said.