A juror yesterday asked a judge if there was any medical test that could determine whether a witness had lied when claiming he had forgotten most of the details of a drug case.

Juror number four made the question after Simon Xuereb had been cross examined for almost two hours. The witness alleged that Norman Bezzina, 56, of Żebbuġ, was the mastermind behind the importation of 2.2 kilograms of cocaine.

Mr Bezzina, a former consultant in the private secretary’s office of Louis Galea when he served as Minister for Social Policy, is pleading not guilty to conspiring to import, importing and being in possession of the drug on April 23, 2001.

Mr Xuereb is serving a nine-year prison term after admitting to drug trafficking and involvement in the case. He is the main witness in the case against Mr Bezzina and yesterday changed the version of events several times, sometimes within minutes, when questioned by defence lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi.

Mr Xuereb testified that Mr Bezzina, a close friend, had discussed importing cocaine from Canada but did not tell him the exact logistics. Following their conversation, Mr Bezzina left the country bound for Canada. He returned four days later and told him he would receive “letters” in his father’s post box in Marsa, which he was to hand over to him. When these arrived, he could not tell what they were because he could not read and, so, he handed them over to Mr Bezzina, Mr Xuereb testified.

Earlier in the day, Assistant Police Commissioner Neil Harrison told the court the letters were actually Maltapost notices to collect packages. There had been two packages that arrived on separate days but the second had been intercepted by the police.

Mr Xuereb testified that Mr Bezzina had sent him to collect the first package from a certain Lawrence Gatt and took it to Mr Bezzina’s shop. Mr Bezzina opened it. It contained spare parts, polystyrene and three packs of drugs, which were given to Charlie iċ-Ċiniż and to another man known as Is-Sinġis.

The witness said he had nothing to do with the second package, which was intercepted by the police on April 23, 2001.

Dr Mallia accused him of lying and said the drugs were never meant for Mr Bezzina but for himself. Mr Xuereb’s only aim, the lawyer maintained, had been to exploit the situation by putting the blame on others and successfully negotiating a reduction in sentence in his own case.

Mr Xuereb flatly denied the charge.

Dr Mallia asked Mr Xuereb whether his father had gone to the ministry, when Mr Bezzina was still working there, asking him to obtain a permit for him to build in a field, which permit was never granted. Mr Xuereb said he had.

The lawyer also asked him whether he had also gone to the ministry and asked for permission to have a kiosk opposite the former Magic Kiosk in Sliema, which was also denied. Mr Xuereb again answered in the affirmative.

Asked what his payment was for his involvement in the drug importation deal, Mr Xuereb said he had first accepted €2,300 and then a further €4,600 after distributing the drugs.

Questioned again on the same facts and on the testimony he had given in the Magistrates’ Court in 2001, Mr Xuereb said he could not remember and could not answer many of the questions put.

At the end of the cross examination, the juror asked Mr Justice Michael Mallia presiding over the trial whether there was a medical test the court could order so that jurors could determine whether Mr Xuereb was merely playing a game or he truly could not remember.

Mr Justice Mallia said it was up the jurors to decide whether or not the witness was telling the truth.

The trial continues.

Lawyer Aaron Bugeja from the Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting.