Today's court sittings had to be postponed because the law about the recording of witnesses has not yet been amended.

The proceedings ground to a halt when lawyer Franco Debono, a Nationalist MP, told a magistrate that the new digital recording system was not allowed by law.

Most of the lawyers present opted not to wait when Magistrate Myriam Hayman declared to a packed room that this development would cause a delay and disrupt the schedule.

Dr Debono raised the issue when it was revealed that four witnesses who had testified in the case against his client had not been recorded because of some problem with the new digital system.

He told Magistrate Miriam Hayman that according to the law, witnesses' testimony had to be recorded by "any electro-magnetic means" and did not refer to any digital apparatus.

Dr Joseph Brincat who was appearing in the following case stated, when asked by the Magistrate whether he was going to raise any such objection as that raised by Dr Debono, stated that he was not going to do so as the definition of the word "tape" in Chapter 284 included "any other means". Incidentally he had drafted that law when he was Minister of Justice. In fact he registered a minute in the records of the proceedings that he wanted to case to be proceeded with, as there was urgency for his client.

Furthermore he had no objection to witnesses in his case being recorded digitally and his case later continued.

The magistrate postponed the day's sittings and discussed the matter with the director of courts. She wrote to Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici to alert him to the fact that the law about the recording of witnesses has not yet been amended.

This latest incident comes hot on the heels of a fierce attack by Dr Debono on Dr Mifsud Bonnici on Monday, calling for him to "wake up from his slumber".

On Tuesday, Dr Debono filed a Constitutional case against the minister, the police commissioner and the attorney general about specific amendments to the law which needed to be implemented.