A contractor facing criminal charges for dumping a migrant worker on the side of the road after falling two storeys from a construction site was granted bail on Thursday evening following a marathon sitting.

Glen Farrugia, a 31-year-old contractor from Żebbuġ and director of J&G Farrugia contractors, was released on bail against a €10,000 deposit and a €30,000 personal guarantee by presiding Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, who continued hearing witnesses until almost 10pm to be able to release Farrugia from custody.

Farrugia stands charged with causing grievous bodily harm to 32-year-old Jaiteh Lamin who was then abandoned on Selmun Road, Mellieħa, after he fractured his spine in a construction site fall last month. He also stands charged with trying to cover up the traces of a crime by removing the Gambian man from the accident scene.

Farrugia denies a list of 20 charges including a series of breaches of employment and health and safety laws.

Jaiteh testified from his hospital bed on Thursday – believed to be a first for the local justice system – where he explained how he was told to say he had been hit by a car.

Lamin Jaiteh told a seven-hour court sitting he thought he was going to die after his boss, Farrugia, pulled him by his armpits from the back of a company van and then drove off on September 28.

“I used my elbows to drag myself on to the pavement because I was in the middle of the road,” he told a court via video link from Mater Dei hospital, where he is being treated for back and arm injuries.

“I don’t know how many minutes passed but I was saying, ‘help me, help me’. I was trying not to lose consciousness because I didn’t know where I was,” he told the court.

Superintendent Priscilla Caruana Lee and Inspector George Frendo are prosecuting.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Matthew Xuereb are defence counsel. Lawyers Andrew Grima and Mattia Felice appeared for the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations.

Lawyer David Saliba appeared for the Occupational Health & Safety Authority and lawyer Gianluca Cappitta represented the victim.