A surreal tape was played in court yesterday in which the Police Commissioner is heard urging former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo to cough up the "dirty money" he allegedly received to reduce the jail term of a drug trafficker.

"That money is dirty, it is drug money, give us the money. And we know a lot of things, take my advice and give us the money," Commissioner John Rizzo is heard saying during an intense interrogation that took place in August 2002.

"It is drug money, which is not money that suits someone of your stature."

But Dr Arrigo replies: "I never took the money; I don't feel like I should be giving anything that I did not take".

In fact, the former Chief Justice has adamantly denied ever receiving money for reducing the jail term. He is pleading not guilty to charges of bribery and trading in influence in a case that has already seen former Judge Patrick Vella being jailed for two years for accepting €23,000 to reduce the jail term of a drug trafficker, Mario Camilleri, also known as L-Imnieħru, from 16 to 12 years.

Dr Arrigo is accused of accepting €3,495 of €23,000 he was promised for changing the judgment.

Mr Rizzo told Dr Arrigo during the interrogation that he knew the judge was worried about his position. He told him the police had found out that after middlemen Anthony Grech Sant and Joseph Zammit, also known as is-Sei, had been arrested, he (Dr Arrigo) confided in his friend Joe Galea and tried to convince him to provide an alibi.

Dr Arrigo, the Commissioner said, had asked the friend to say that he was at his office on the Friday when the judgment was handed down, when in fact he (Mr Galea) was in Comino.

Dr Arrigo, however, denied having asked Mr Galea to lie for him. He said that on the Saturday he had asked Mr Galea for his cooperation on what had happened. It was when the two had actually spoken to each other.

But at that point, the Commissioner told Dr Arrigo that Mr Galea had informed the police that he had been asked to lie to them. Again, Dr Arrigo denied this.

According to Dr Arrigo, Mr Galea was at the office when Mr Grech Sant went over and offered the former Chief Justice money for reducing the jail term.

Dr Arrigo said Mr Zammit had already gone to his office and offered him money before Mr Grech Sant did, but he refused the cash and told him that if he had any extra money he should give it to charity.

He added that he admitted to having been worried because Mr Grech Sant and Mr Zammit had offered him a present before the judgment was handed down.

When questioned about the actual reduction of the sentence, Dr Arrigo told the Commissioner that the third judge who sat on the Criminal Court of Appeal, Joseph Filletti, would have vetoed the reduction had he thought it was undeserved. Mr Justice Filletti is not implicated in the case.

The questioning became more intense: "According to Mr Galea you accepted the money from Mr Grech Sant," the Commissioner said. But Dr Arrigo replied: "No I didn't".

The Commissioner piled the pressure on him: "According to Grech Sant you took them, according to Zammit you took them, according to Galea you took them, according to Camilleri you took them and the reduced judgment confirms all this".

The former judge replied: "This is a frame-up between Mr Grech Sant and Mr Zammit."

In the last statement taken before he was arraigned, Dr Arrigo said that after he had spent the night thinking about it he had decided not to answer any more questions.

Taking the witness stand for cross-examination yesterday, Commissioner Rizzo said he had retrieved three judgments from Dr Vella's computer.

In a floppy disk, three different versions of the same judgment were found, one where it had been confirmed, one where it had been reduced by three years and the last where it had been reduced by four years.

At the point when the recorded phone calls were meant to be played, defence lawyer Joseph Giglio asked Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo not to play all the hours of tapes, since they had already been heard in the compilation of evidence. But the judge denied the request since he had not heard them himself.

Testifying, Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Cachia said that he had been informed about the case in July 2002 by the Commissioner. He said that from investigations it resulted that each of the two judges had to be paid €23,000 but Mr Camilleri did not have that sort of money and offered only €11,650.

He added that Dr Vella had gone to pick up the money himself while Mr Grech Sant had gone to hand over the cash to Dr Arrigo.

However, when the former Chief Justice realised that he was not going to get the full sum, he didn't want to be part of it anymore and also denied ever accepting €11,650.

Mr Galea had told the police that Mr Grech Sant gave Dr Arrigo only €3,495, the deputy commissioner said.

During cross-examination, Dr Giglio read out part of a statement released by Mr Grech Sant where he said that he had offered the money to Dr Arrigo but he did not accept and Dr Giglio asked the deputy commissioner to confirm.

Mr Cachia replied: "Yes, but there are many other things that I could say." The comment prompted the family of Dr Arrigo to express disapproval.

Yesterday's sitting finished up with recordings made of phone calls between Mr Zammit, Mr Camilleri and his son Pierre and wife Mona along with other calls between Mr Camilleri and his other son Mario and between Mr Zammit and Mr Grech Sant.

Dr Arrigo was only mentioned twice and briefly. Mr Zammit was heard telling Mr Camilleri that "the big one in the middle", referring to how the judges sit in the appeal court, had been offered the money but did not want it.

The case continues.

Lawyer Lara Lanfranco from the Attorney General's Office also prosecuted.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio and Robert Abela appeared for Dr Arrigo.