Former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo insisted today that he never accepted any gift and whatever he did, he did according to what his conscience told him to be right.

Dr Arrigo was testifying this morning in his own trial. He has been charged with bribery and trading in influence for accepting to reduce the jail term of drug trafficker Mario Camilleri, also known as l-Imniehru, from 16 years to 12 years.

Dr Arrigo said that he had always insisted that he did not take gifts and he could not accept that he was influenced in any way to alter the judgement in a way that was different from what his conscience told him.

He said there were various reasons for the decisions that had been taken. The first was the plea bargaining. The parameters that the defence and prosecution had talked about were of a prison term of between 10 and 12 years. The prosecution had even accepted that the maximum would be 11 years.

This was not something subjective between lawyers, but had come into force in law.

Another consideration was the early admission of the accused - in terms of procedure people who filed an early guilty plea benefited from a reduced penalty.

Dr Arrigo said he had had the support of the other two judges on the appeals court . This was not a judgement where one judge had objected and had Mr Justice Filletti expressed a doubt, he would have put off the judgement

The third consideration was the penalties imposed in similar cases, and penalties imposed in more serious cases

In a similar case in November 2000 Ahmed ben Taher on admission was jailed for nine 9 years. In another case, Zerag bin Tahid was jailed for 8 years 5 months.

Dr Arrigo said he had also considered the record of the accused, which was clean at the time. He had also emphasised on this point.

The first reaction was to reduce the jail term to 13 years and not to 12 years. He had spoken to the prosecution and the defence since both wanted the meeting to happen, and he was never under any pressure. He had also sought the other judges to attend the meeting, but only the former Mr Justice Vella was available and he attended.

Dr Arrigo said that while he committed mistakes, he never accepted any money and he had served his duty with the other judges and handed down a fair judgement.

The former chief justice said he was a friend of Anthony Grech Sant (the person who allegedly acted as a middleman) for 50 years and this person never spoke to him about judgements.

At one time Mr Grech Sant appeared different, and he said he had a friend who needed help in a case awaiting appeal.

He said he was ready to pay him Lm10,000 but never mentioned who the accused was, or what case it was.

Dr Arrigo said he told him he did not do that sort of thing. It was embarrassing, but, Dr Arrigo said, he refused the money. He was not Chief Justice at the time, although he sat on the appeals court, and in order to get rid of the issue, he told Mr Grech Sant that he did not write the court sentences.

Dr Arrigo said he met Joseph Zammit Is-Sei by coincidence. He would say good morning to him and he would say hello but that was it.One time he spoke to him for 10 minutes, claiming he should not have been sent to prison. He also complained that Mario Camilleri had been condemned for a longer prison term than was fair. He claimed that Mr Camilleri had been betrayed by his lawyers.

Dr Arrigo said he had assured him that (defence counsel) Dr Mallia did not do such a thing. Is-Sei did not mention any money to him

Dr Arrigo said that his impression of that meeting was that he did not give any answer to Is-Sei.

On the day before the Appeals Court was due to deliver its judgement on Mario Camilleri, Is-Sei, out of the blue raised the Camilleri case. He replied in a harsh way that money did not matter to him and the accused would get what he deserved even a shorter term if that was according to law. By that time, the judgement had already been written and approved by the three judges, Dr Arrigo said. He did not say that to Is-Sei.

Shortly after Mr Grech Sant phoned to say he was under pressure from Is-Sei and he told him that the judgement would be of 12 years imprisonment.

Dr Arrigo told the court that in the two occasions when he was offered money, he refused. He never expected anything, he never phoned or communicated with Grech Sant on this matter. It was not logical to accept money after the sentence when he had refused it before.

Mr Grech Sant turned up at his private office after the sentence was delivered and threw an envelope on his desk. He insisted, again, that he did not want any money. Grech Sant said it was a present for having done his work. He said others were waiting for him outside and he could not leave with the envelope.

Dr Arrigo said that after Mr Grech Sant left, he could have done many things but he was confused and did not react. He was flabbergasted.

He had an impression that he then sought out his friend and employee Joe Galea to tell him what had happened, but he was not there on the day.

At night, he could not sleep.

Dr Arrigo said he took the money home put it in a box and started thinking about what he could do with it. His first thought was to give it to charity. At that point he could not go to the police and give it to them. Nor could he spend it. That was my only way out.

"I didn't act the way a Chief Justice should have acted, and it was very disappointing that, for friendship, I did what I did. I decided to give the money to charity."

Dr Arrigo said that every time he went abroad he would go to St Mary's parish church in London, where he knew a Gozitan priest, Fr Saviour Grech.

Dr Arrigo said that while initially he did not open the envelope, once he took the decision to give it to charity, he took out two Lm20 notes. He did not know how much money there was, but he was suspicious that the notes could be false and he did not want any charity to say that look the Chief Justice had given them false notes. He never used the money for anything.

He saw Is-Sei again in Bakery Street and he told him that more money would be handed over in a month or two.

Dr Arrigo said he insisted he did not want money and he should give it to charity or to Caritas.

Dr Arrigo said that Mr Grech Sant had told him that the envelope contained Lm5,000, and that in two months time there would be a second payment.

Dr Arrigo said that when he went to London he looked up Fr Grech, but he was in Gozo.

He therefore went to Gozo, found Fr Grech, told him what had happened, but did not hand him the money. He told him, outside confession, that he had accepted money after a judgement had been written, and he felt that the judgement was written in the correct way.

Dr Arrigo said that when he went to Gozo, he knew knew that Mr Grech Sant, Is-Sei and another man called Id-Drubi were being investigated. In the complete confusion that ensued he then decided to send the money to the police through the parish priest of Żebbug and that was when he knew that the money was actually Lm 5,000.

Dr Arrigo said that Fr Grech promised him that he was going to testify in his case but unfortunately his (UK) Archbishop gave him an order not to testify in the proceedings.