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Good job!
I agree with each answer you came up with, but an argument for use of the imperfect tense can be given for the second sentence.
Your answer tells us that the witness lied (started and ended) during his testimony (at least once). Your answer could also be telling us that the testimony was fabricated beforehand (started and ended), before suspicion arose while the testimony was being spoken.
However, if the testimony was being created on the fly, at the same time the words were flowing and the unnamed person was becoming suspicious that the testimony contained falsehoods, then we can reasonably say that the witness was lying (mentía) during the delivery.
So, both answers could be correct, depending on what was happening at the time (depending on what your reasoning of the situation was). The Spanish-wired mind will understand the circumstance as it was framed (depending on the tense used). We English speakers have to use more words to understand whether there was a lie or a lot of lies, or whether the whole testimony sounded rehearsed, or fluid.
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