A trial by jury due to start next week has had to be postponed, since the report on some of the evidence was prepared by disgraced court-appointed expert Martin Bajada, the Times of Malta has learnt.

Sources have told this newspaper that ever since April 29, when a judgment casting a shadow on the expert’s integrity was delivered, many defence lawyers have raised objections to Dr Bajada’s testimony being used in their respective cases.

The present situation is “very unclear” for lawyers from both sides of the bar, with this particular trial by jury being viewed as a “test case” since the decision will indicate the road ahead for similar cases involving Dr Bajada’s technical reports, sources said.

A trial by jury concerning two individuals facing drug trafficking charges was due to begin on June 1, presided over by Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi.

However, defence counsel is arguing that if Dr Bajada’s testimony was deemed to be unreliable in a civil case, there was now all the more reason to dismiss his evidence, given the gravity of criminal proceedings. The defence is therefore requesting that Dr Bajada’s report be removed from the records of the case.

The prosecution, on the other hand, is opposing this, pointing out that Dr Bajada was appointed by the court and not by the prosecution, and it should therefore not have to suffer the consequences.

It is therefore asking for another expert to be appointed and tasked with overseeing Dr Bajada’s report and – if no irregularities are found – to allow Dr Bajada’s report as legitimate testimony.

On July 2, 1993, Dr Bajada pleaded guilty before a London court to 10 counts of theft to the detriment of Air Malta and was handed a two-year suspended sentence. Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court documents show that he had stolen €59,329.

When three private individuals learnt that Dr Bajada had a criminal record involving the falsification of documents, they filed a request for Dr Bajada’s report on calligraphy to be removed from the records of their civil case.

Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri, sitting in the Court of Appeal, upheld the request on April 29. This newspaper reported that the fact that Dr Bajada had a criminal record had been made known to previous justice ministers under the Nationalist and Labour administrations

The matter was also reported to the Commission for the Administration of Justice.

Yet before the April ruling, he was still appointed as an expert by members of the judiciary, earning some €496,479 from 2010 to 2015.