Prosecution, defence debate absence of fingerprints

The trial by jury of a man accused of trafficking eight kilograms of cannabis is drawing to a close and the jurors are expected to retire to deliberate today.

The alleged drug trafficker, 41-year-old Joseph Mifsud, a car oil importer, said in a police statement he had never taken drugs and knew nothing about them.

The prosecution is alleging that Mr Mifsud had placed a large haul of cannabis resin in the boot of a car belonging to a well known and now deceased criminal, Victor Magri, also known as Iċ-Ċinku, in November 2004.

During his closing arguments yesterday, lawyer Aaron Bugeja, from the Attorney General's office, said this was a case where either the police or the accused were lying. He encouraged the jurors to use their common sense, arguing there was no reason why the police had to lie about any of the evidence produced in court.

Referring to the evidence of Police Sergeant Antoine Micallef, the only person who saw Mr Mifsud place the drugs in the boot of the car, Dr Bugeja insisted the officer was credible and gave a detailed account.

Defence lawyer Joseph Giglio said a scene-of-crime report tears the whole case apart because no finger prints were found on the boot of the car or on the bag containing the drugs.

In reply, Dr Bugeja said the report about the finger prints was inconclusive and, in fact, even Police Inspector Nezren Grixti had said that he had opened the boot but neither were his finger prints lifted. The absence of fingerprints did not mean the police were lying about the whole case, the prosecuting officer insisted.

Lawyer Robert Abela also appeared for the accused.