A court yesterday accepted a man’s constitutional application to delay proceedings in his trial by jury for the murder of an elderly couple.

Brian Vella was to face trial on Monday for the murder of a couple in their Santa Lucija home on 17 February six years ago, but he requested it to be postponed after the defence filed a constitutional application to stop the criminal proceedings.

Mr Vella had been arraigned three years ago, and his case was moved to the Criminal Court in February 2004 for him to undergo a trial by jury. The Criminal Court had dissolved the trial and a second trial, that was appointed for last January, was also dissolved.

The reason given for the request was that the Criminal Court presided over by Mr Justice Joe Galea Debono needed to wait for the outcome of the constitutional application in the First Hall of the

Civil Court.

In the application, the defence claimed that the defendant’s trial had been dissolved twice with the consequence that his right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence had been seriously prejudiced.

Brian Vella’s lawyers, Anglu Farrugia and Kris Busietta, said all the evidence heard had been reported extensively in newspapers. They added that changing the date of his trial would not interfere with the court’s time-table as he was aware that another trial had been scheduled to start on Monday.

On his part, the Attorney General said he was leaving the issue whether to postpone the trial or not in the hands of the court. However, the Attorney General added that he objected to the defence’s plea.

After evaluating the application and the Attorney General’s reply Mr Justice Galea Debono moved the trial by a week.