Accused's brother charged with threatening star witness

As a former policeman charged with drug trafficking testified in his trial by jury yesterday, his brother was being charged with threatening the prosecution's star witness.

Jean Pierre Abdilla, 31, insisted he never spoke to anyone about drugs or had anything to do with illegal substances and even accused Assistant Police Commissioner Neil Harrison of threatening him during interrogation.

Mr Abdilla is pleading not guilty to conspiring to deal in heroin, trafficking in the drug and breaching administrative law enforcement regulations on and before March 2005.

He said that while he was being interrogated, Mr Harrison had told him that inmates would have a field day with him in prison and that the beating he would receive in jail would be worse than the sentence he would get.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono questioned Mr Harrison on this point but the officer denied ever making such statements to the accused.

As Mr Abdilla was testifying, his brother, Elton, was arraigned before Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera and charged with threatening the main witness in the trial, another former police officer.

Elton Abdilla pleaded not guilty to threatening the witness on Monday afternoon after he allegedly moved his finger across his throat just before a hearing of his brother's drug trafficking case.

He was placed under house arrest against a personal guarantee of €1,000 and a deposit of €300.

The witness, whose name cannot be mentioned by court order to protect his identity, has himself been jailed for drug trafficking. But it was thanks to him that the case came to light after he claimed that the accused had approached him with an offer to sell up to a kilogramme of heroin.

The police had filmed the accused handing over a piece of gold-coloured paper to the informer, which, allegedly, contained a sample of one gramme of heroin.

Mr Abdilla denied that the paper contained drugs, saying it just had a telephone number written on it. But Mr Justice Galea Debono questioned this, asking why he would have passed over the paper in such a stealthy manner if it simply contained a telephone number.

Mr Abdilla could not come up with an answer immediately and explained that he had leaned over slightly when he reached to take the paper out of his pocket. This could have given the impression that the exchange was underhand.

The judge asked why he did not say so in his police statement rather than refusing to answer any questions. Mr Abdilla said he had given an answer to Mr Harrison outside the interrogating room but he was ignored.

Mr Harrison said he could recall the arrogance of the accused as he sat staring intensely into his eyes and making a very particular clicking noise with his mouth. The officer said this incident stuck in his mind as it was so unusual.

Mr Abdilla justified why he had gone to speak to the informer, saying he had a friend in Morocco whom he wanted to help with travel documents. He knew the accused had contacts within the Immigration Department at the airport who might be able to arrange for his friend be able to get to Malta without the necessary documentation.

He met the informer three times because at first he had asked him for €1,165 as a fee but he felt this was too high and he negotiated his way down to €699. However, he was adamant that he never spoke to the informer about drugs.

The trial continues.

Lawyer Nadine Sant from the Attorney General's Office prosecuted.

Lawyers Anġlu Farrugia and Edward Gatt appeared for the accused.

Lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi appeared for Elton Abdilla.