A court hearing the bribery trial of former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo heard various versions yesterday of who was supposed to have handed over the money to Dr Arrigo, and of different amounts which changed hands, with Dr Arrigo insisting he never accepted any money.

The trial entered its second day yesterday and the court, presided by Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo, heard the most senior officials in the police corps give their version of how Dr Arrigo was allegedly given the bribe money.

During the lengthy police investigation that led to the trial, the former Chief Justice denied he ever received any money. The only mistake he admitted to the police, was of speaking to his friends about the appeal judgment prior to it being handed down, Commissioner John Rizzo told the court on Wednesday.

Dr Arrigo is charged with bribery, providing information he was duty bound to conceal and trading in influence, in connection with an appeal hearing. The case goes back to 2002, when the sentence handed down to Mario Camilleri (l-Imniehru) in a drug trafficking case, was on appeal reduced by four years.

Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Cachia told the court yesterday that investigations had shown that Dr Arrigo’s close friend, Anthony Grech Sant, had given him Lm5,000 (e11,647).

The original plan was for each judge who had been approached about the appeal to be paid Lm10,000 (e23,294), however Mario Camilleri, whose appeal it was that was to be heard, eventually decided he could only pay the judges Lm5,000 each.

Grech Sant was to hand Dr Arrigo the money, however Grech Sant did not accept to do this because the agreement (of paying the then Chief Justice Lm10,000), was not being honoured.

Joe Zammit (Is-Sei) then gave Dr Arrigo Lm5,000.

Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar said that is-Sei said he had handed the Lm5,000 to the former Chief Justice when they met near the Embassy complex in Valletta.

According to Mr Cassar, the most incriminating telephone conversation said that the agreement was to pay Dr Arrigo Lm10,000 but it was later decided the sum would be Lm5,000. Mario Camilleri's son, Pierre, went to Is-Sei, who then contacted Dr Arrigo's friend, Grech Sant. The latter was not sure whether the plan would work since, he said, the former Chief Justice was not the sort to accept a bribe.

When it came to actuating the plan, and he realized that the full amount was not going to be paid, Grech Sant told them the agreement was not being honoured and he backed out.

It seemed that Is- Sei had delivered the bribe money to Dr Arrigo, Mr Cassar said.

But, according to defence lawyer Joseph Giglio, the police officers' testimony was based on hearsay as they were all present during interrogations. They narrated what they had learnt from Is- Sei and Grech Sant. The court cannot take this as proof, he argued.

Assistant Commissioner Pierre Calleja and the then acting head of the security service, Herbert Agius also testified. Mr Agius said the security service recorded phone interceptions which were handed over to the Police Commissioner. The case came to light from telephone conversations between the drug trafficker, intermediaries and even former appeal judge Patrick Vella who had been found guilty of involvement in the case and was given a two-year jail term.

Former Chief Justice Arrigo never accepted the police line that he was bribed, even when the Police Commissioner told him that his friend of 20 years, and director of his company, Joe Galea, had told the police that Dr Arrigo was given Lm1,500 in Lm20 notes.

Commissioner Rizzo told Dr Arrigo that Mr Galea had explained how Dr Arrigo started spending the money when buying items from a pharmacy and when he went for a drink with Mr Galea, even though he had other change. Dr Arrigo had been afraid the note numbers had been recorded and he wanted to get rid of them.

The former Chief Justice continued to insist he had never received any money.

While the morning session was characterized by the hearing of tape recordings of Dr Arrigo's interrogation, phone interceptions were played in the afternoon. Many friends of the accused, family members and lawyers were in the courtroom.

The trial is expected to gain momentum today and early next week as Mario Camilleri (l-Imniehru), his son Pierre, Is- Sei and Joe Galea, as well as a number of lawyers are expected to testify.

The prosecution is being led by the head of the prosecution unit in the Attorney General's office, Anthony Barbara and Dr Lara Lanfranco. Lawyers Joseph Giglio and Robert Abela are representing the accused.