Prosecution, defence debate credibility of the accused

The credibility of a former policeman charged with drug trafficking was yesterday called into question in the final bouts of his trial before the verdict.

The lawyer from the Attorney General's Office, Nadine Sant, shot down the testimony of Jean Pierre Abdilla, 31, who stands accused of conspiring to deal in heroin, trafficking in the drug and breaching administrative law enforcement regulations on and before March 2005.

She said he was not credible enough to be relied on, especially because he was so inconsistent during his evidence. She highlighted a marginal issue, which he is charged with concerning some dead protected birds found in his freezer when the police searched his home in Żurrieq. She said he changed his version three times on where the birds came from. During the search he had said the birds belonged to his brother, then he claimed they were his and later changed his tune again and said they belonged to his brother, she said.

Defence lawyer Anġlu Farrugia rebutted her arguments and said that no drugs were ever found at the home of the accused or in the two garages he owned and neither on his person. This was a particularly important point as his client was charged with trafficking when there was no proof that the drug actually existed, he insisted.

According to evidence produced during the trial, the accused was given away by another former policeman, who cannot be named by court order, and who said he had been approached by Mr Abdilla and asked whether he wanted to buy a kilogramme of heroin.

Three controlled meetings took place, where officers covertly filmed the two men meeting and allegedly negotiating the heroin deal.

The informer had been jailed for his own unrelated drug-trafficking case and was helping the police during proceedings against himself.

On Monday, the informer was allegedly threatened by the brother of the accused, Elton, who moved his finger across his throat just before the trial opened. He was arraigned the following day and placed under house arrest.

Lawyer Edward Gatt also appeared for the accused.