“I gave Dr Arrigo the envelope full of cash at his office in Valletta. We did not discuss it and no explanations were made,” Anthony Grech Sant, who has known the former Chief Justice for the past 50 years, told the court yesterday.

Meanwhile, Anthony Zammit (Is-Sei), who acted as an intermediary between Mario Camilleri’s son Pierre and Anthony Grech Sant, gave the court a confusing testimony.

On taking the witness stand, Is-Sei explained that he had agreed with Anthony Grech Sant to pay the former Chief Justice LM10,000 if a lighter jail term was applied. Grech Sant was to speak to Dr Arrigo.

He told the court that Pierre Camilleri, was to deliver LM5,000 to Grech Sant because he did not trust him with the money. We went to Grech Sant together but he did not want them, Zammit said.

Minutes later, he said that he accompanied Pierre Camilleri to NM Arrigo offices and left the money in an envelope on the desk, explaining to one of the female clerks that it was for Dr Arrigo. He said he had simply left the money there because when he called Grech Sant about it, he did not want it since the initial agreement was not honoured.

Is-Sei confirmed that Dr Arrigo never wanted money and the former Chief Justice had told him directly to make a donation to charity.

“It did not feel right to approach him on the matter in the first place. I was embarrassed, he told the court,” a nervous Anthony Grech Sant told the court.

Dr Arrigo had replied that he will help him if he could but did not want any money. Dr Arrigo had insisted he did not accept bribes and did not need money.

When Grech Sant was told that LM5,000 would be paid, he argued that the agreement was not being honoured and did not want to have anything to do with it.

Nonetheless, he was given a sealed envelope full of cash and did not refuse it.

Grech Sant noted that Pierre Camilleri and Is-Sei wanted to accompany him and make sure the cash was delivered, but he refused.

Former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo is being charged with bribery, providing information he was duty bound to conceal and trading in influence. The case goes back to 2002, when Mario Camilleri’s (l-imniehru) sentence of an appeal judgement of a drug trafficking case was decreased by four years.

During the fourth day in the former Chief Justice’s trial, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo heard Mario Camilleri (l-imniehru) and his son Pierre testify they sought help for a lighter sentence to be handed down.

L-imniehru said he had spent four year arrested. Some days before the jury started, his lawyers Gianella Caruana Curran and Manuel Mallia met him in court and informed him that he would be handed down an eight- to 10-year jail term if he admitted.

However he got a six-year jail term which was reduced by four years after appeal. Meanwhile, he said he did not know why a lighter sentence was applied.

Pierre Camilleri said he did nothing except trying to help his father and got a jail term.

On taking the witness stand, Joe Galea, a director in Dr Arrigo’s family business and who enjoyed very good relations with Dr Arrigo, said the accused was very confused and worried on Saturday 6 July, the day after the judgement was handed down.

“I think it was also the only day he was angry,” Mr Galea said.

When confiding in him, Dr Arrigo said that someone had offered him money after a judgement was handed down.

At first he refused it. But then he was given LM1,500.

He started using the LM 20 he was given to pay at the pharmacy saying he wanted to get rid of it because he never wanted it.

Mr Galea also told the court that Dr Arrigo had never told him to act as his alibi.

“He never told me to tell any stories that I was at the office when I had been in Comino. It was only when I found myself at the police depot that I thought of trying to say something to help him,” Mr Galea said.

Dr Mark Said, who was the prosecuting lawyer in the trial against Mario Camilleri in 2002 said that after consulting judgements of similar cases, he believed that a 12 to 13 year-jail-term was to be handed down.

In fact, he had suggested a sentence of not less than 10 years and no more than 14 years. Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s office had withdrawn charges of relapsing and money laundering since there was not enough proof.

Discussions with Dr Manuel Mallia, the defence lawyer representing Camilleri, led to the conclusion that he was to admit his charges.

“I was surprised that the court had handed down a 16-year-jail term and Dr Mallia had been very angry”. The two lawyers agreed to refer to discussions that had taken place prior to Camilleri’s admission and the pre-bargaining exercise which had shown that a 12-year to a 14-year was fair, during submissions to the court of appeal.

Defence lawyer Joseph Giglio also reminded Dr Said that he had suggested an eight- to 12-years imprisonment sentence during his submissions and had only mentioned the 10- to14-years in discussions with Dr Mallia.

Dr Arrigo himself is expected to testify in his own defence today.

Dr Giglio told the court that the defence counsel has based its arguments on the point that Dr Arrigo never wanted the money and was given the cash after the judgement was handed down. This meant that he did not accept the bribe.

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