The body of Mario Camilleri, who was murdered with his son in July 2013, has finally been released for reburial but his wife cannot lay him back to rest in the family grave yet because of health and safety concerns.

She was told two years had to elapse since the burial before she could move the body of her son to be able to bury her husband in the same grave – as they were before.

“I would rather wait for the two years to be up. I want him buried beneath my son, as they were originally. I want to be able to go and visit them at the cemetery together,” Mona Camilleri said.

Speaking to Times of Malta she said that, on Wednesday, the courts authorised the reburial of her husband, known as l-Imnieħru.

His remains had been exhumed for further investigations on July 23, 2013, four days after the funeral, when she also buried her 21-year-old son, Mario Jnr.

Father and son were buried in the same grave and Ms Camilleri wanted to keep it that way. But when she informed staff at the Addolorata Cemetery about her plans she was told a body in a grave could not be moved before two years elapsed.

Mr Camilleri Jnr is buried in a government ‘common grave’ and a Health Ministry spokesman said there were three more burials in the grave, which was then sealed. “It has always been the environmental health directorate's policy that graves are not opened prior to the lapse of two years from the last burial. Any burials in the common graves are, as always, carried out in the next grave after the previous one is full and unless the cycle is complete the common graves are not used again.“

Mr Camilleri Snr’s exhumation was necessary because investigators had doubts whether he was shot dead or had succumbed to a heart attack. This week, two medical experts testified he died of a heart attack caused by a blood clot and not from gunshot wounds.

From evidence heard in court, it resulted that Mr Camilleri, 51, a convicted drug trafficker, died in Marsaxlokk and his son was shot and stabbed 34 times in Qajjenza, limits of Birżebbuġa, shortly afterwards.

They were found partly buried in a shallow grave in a field in Qajjenza on July 17, 2013.

Ms Camilleri’s brother – Jason Galea – and George Galea are pleading not guilty to the murders.