The Criminal Court has rescheduled the double murder trial of Brian Vella to next Monday "only as a measure of prudence", unless there are further obstacles.

After taking note of the decision delivered by the Constitutional Court last week, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono put off the trial - which was meant to start yesterday - to Monday at 9 a.m.

Unless there are further obstacles the trial of Mr Vella will start instead of another trial that was scheduled to start on the same day, the judge said.

Last week the Constitutional Court overturned a judgment of the First Hall of the Civil Court, effectively ordering it to hear what the accused had to say.

The First Hall had dismissed Mr Vella's appeal in which he claimed that his right to a fair hearing was violated by the fact that his jury trial had been dissolved on two occasions and that, as a consequence, his presumption of innocence could no longer be guaranteed.

But the Constitutional Court overturned this judgment, and ordered the First Hall to review the evidence produced by Mr Vella's lawyers. This included evidence related to media reports and comments made by Police Commissioner John Rizzo during a press conference after the trial was dissolved a second time.

Mr Vella is accused of the murder of Gerald and Josephine Grima at their home in Sta Lucija on February 17, six years ago.

He was arraigned three years ago and his case went to the Criminal Court in February 2004 for him to undergo a trial by jury.

The Criminal Court had dissolved the trial after ruling that the testimony of a co-accused, who had admitted his involvement, was not admissible.

A second trial, appointed for last January, was also dissolved when Police Commissioner John Rizzo was deemed to have given evidence considered prejudicial to the accused.

The Criminal Court had again set a date for Mr Vella's trial, which was to start on June 5 but, on June 2, Mr Justice Galea Debono ordered that the trial by jury be postponed by a week, to June 12, as a measure of prudence pending developments in a constitutional application filed by Mr Vella in the First Hall.

The First Hall dismissed Mr Vella's claim that his right to a fair hearing was violated and, since on June 12 Mr Justice Galea Debono was still caught up in a another trial that had stated the week before, Mr Vella's trial was rescheduled to June 26, that is, yesterday.

However, in light of the Constitutional judgement Mr Justice Galea Debono moved it back by a week as a measure of prudence.

Lawyers Mark Said and Cynthia Scerri Debono represented the Attorney General.

Lawyers Anglu Farrugia and Kris Busietta were counsel to Mr Vella.