An accountant acquitted of defaming former minister John Dalli yesterday said he was mistreated by the police and held in “primitive, unhygienic and disgusting” conditions.

Joseph Ellul Grech recalled how he was arrested on suspicion of sending out 20,000 anonymous letters about Mr Dalli in 1999.

They contained a fabricated bank statement allegedly from the Midland Bank Trans Corporation Limited and other documents.

Mr Ellul Grech was charged and eventually acquitted in 2003 but was fined €116 after police searching his home for evidence found unlicensed weapons.

The case took five years to draw to a close and this delay led him to institute a constitutional case claiming a breach of his rights due to the length of time it took for the matter to be decided. Taking the witness stand, Mr Ellul Grech said that on November 15, 1999, the police searched his home for four hours in the presence of his seven-year-old daughter and his wife.

They asked him to go with them for further questioning and told his wife he would be back later.

But he ended up staying until the following day in a primitive, unhygienic and disgusting cell at the Msida police station.

At no point was he informed he was under arrest or given a caution, and was under the impression he was going to help police with their enquiries.

The interrogation took place in a cramped room no bigger than eight feet by six with officers firing questions at him. He was in constant pain from kidney stones and had a particularly bad bout while in police custody.

He was under duress, under the influence of heavy pain killers after being taken to hospital, not given anything to drink or eat, and officers were trying to get him to admit a crime he did not commit.

The only time he was offered something to eat was when a certain Police Inspector Cremona offered him half of a roll he was eating, which was insulting.

During his interrogation, Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar, who is now head of the Security Service, was going in and out of the room. Each time he came in he had new questions and it became apparent he was receiving instructions from someone else, Mr Ellul Grech said.

In the weeks after his arraignment, he said he was followed for days by the police – he recognised some of them from school.

Referring to the case, he said it took a fingerprint expert, Police Constable Andrew Caruana, two years to present his report.

The case continues.