A man accused of conspiring to traffic in 3.5 kilogrammes of drugs yesterday flatly denied his involvement and accused all the police witnesses of lying.

Chris Grech, 28, of Qormi, stands charged with conspiring to traffic and possession of 14 blocks of cannabis, in circumstances which denote it was not for his exclusive use, on May 18, 2006.

Mr Grech claimed that fingerprint expert Joseph Mallia, who found fingerprints of the accused on one of the blocks, was also lying. Mr Mallia testified yesterday about finding 14 points of correspondence between the fingerprints of the accused and the print on the block.

During cross examination, defence lawyer Emmanuel Mallia asked Mr Mallia if he had ever heard the phrase "fingerprints don't lie but liars take fingerprints". Mr Mallia said he had never heard of it.

On Monday, the court heard how the police had carried out surveillance of the area near the Splash and Fun Park and the White Rocks along the Coast Road.

According to their testimony, the police saw Mr Grech drive up to a secluded spot and hide a sack of drugs in the bushes, only to return sometime later.

However, he realised that the police were watching him and he sped away. He was arrested a day later.

In his testimony yesterday, Mr Grech said that he had merely stopped there to urinate and nothing else. He had driven away fast because as he was about to get out of the car he saw a man running towards him and a gunshot went off.

He said he was so scared that he wet himself as he thought it was the family of his former wife or the family of a woman he had been seeing secretly.

Mr Grech said he had contemplated going to make a police report on the incident but had decided against it because of the complications it might cause.

A short time later, he received a call from his mother that the police had taken his father away for questioning and he went straight to police headquarters to find out why.

There he was arrested and during interrogation felt threatened by Police Inspector Nezren Grixti who was holding a baton and by Sergeant Samuel Attard who stood behind the inspector wielding a baseball bat.

Mr Grech said that Sergeant Attard told him that if he didn't tell the truth he was going to crack his head open with the bat.

Both the inspector and the sergeant denied these allegations.

Pharmacist Mario Mifsud said the drugs were 7.67 per cent pure and that this was normal. The haul was worth around €22,000.

Mr Grech said that after he was questioned the first time he was given police bail and asked to return. When he went back a few days later he was told that they had found his fingerprints on one of the blocks.

At this point he was asked by his lawyer what he thought of the allegations and Mr Grech said that he never touched the sack; he never saw the sack and had never touched the drugs.

In cross examination, prosecutor Aaron Bugeja asked Mr Grech if all the police witnesses were lying and he replied that they were.

At this point Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono asked Mr Grech if he had instituted any court case against the Commissioner of Police about the threats. He replied that he had not.

Once Mr Grech had finished testifying a juror asked him why he had said that one of the photos in his mobile phone was of a girl who was his friend, when clearly it was Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.

Mr Grech said he was not referring to the same picture and then added that he was not referring to any picture found in the phone.