UPDATED: Accused says police statement was 'dictated' to him

The 59-year-old Gozitan farmer standing trial for cultivating over 19kgs of cannabis told jurors today that police dictated to him what to say in his police statement so as to avoid a heavy punishment.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono heard Paul Muscat, from Nadur, say that he was insulted by police when they had taunted him saying he would never see his family again.

Mr Muscat is facing a trial by jury and is pleading not guilty to conspiring to traffic 19kgs of cannabis, cultivating the plant, dealing in cannabis and the possession of dried cannabis leaves in circumstances denoting it was not for his personal use in December 2003.

Mr Muscat told jurors that Police Superintendent Neil Harrison and Inspector Nezren Grixti had insulted him at the police headquarters.

“Inspector Grixti offended me and told me I would never see my family again… I was only given a piece of bread and my blood pressure tablets after not eating from the day before and when I asked for another piece of bread they told me to buy something from the vending machine,” he said.

During cross-examination lawyer Lara Lanfranco, representing the Attorney General, asked Mr Muscat how “by coincidence” a sack full of drugs ended up in his field. He denied owning the sack, even though three witnesses testified against him saying that they had seen him with it. When questioned about the three tanks with drugs in them, Mr Muscat said that he had no knowledge of these tanks.

Mr Justice Galea Debono then called Supterintendent Harrison and Inspector Grixti to confront the allegations made by Mr Muscat and they denied them. Taking the witness stand Mr Muscat’s wife, Maria, said that in December the police had entered their home with her husband in handcuffs and she was frightened. Shortly after she heard her husband yelling for the police constable to stop hitting him.

“The policeman told me I would not see my husband again, I told him I wanted to give my husband something to eat before they left but they refused and told me my husband would not eat tonight,” she said. She added that police had searched their house from top to bottom and found their savings’ box with a few important documents inside.

Mr Muscat’s sister, Sr Virginia Muscat, a nun who also lives in Nadur, told the jurors she had gone to the field in question very often but never saw anything unusual “just fruit trees and some wild vegetation”. The trial continues this morning when the judge is expected to conclude the summing up of the trial before jurors deliberate for a verdict.