There will be yet another delay in a long-awaited political corruption case in B.C. as the so-called Basi-Virk trial heads to the Supreme Court of Canada for a procedural decision.

Former ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk were charged in 2004 with fraud and breach of trust in the privatization of the British Columbia Railway Company after the police raided the B.C. legislature and seized documents related to the case in 2003.

The case has been mired in procedural disputes for several years and the actual trial has yet to begin.

Now the Supreme Court of Canada has decided it will hear an appeal related to the charges against the two former ministerial aides.

At issue is a request by the special prosecutor to have lawyers for the defendants excluded from a hearing that could reveal the identity of a key witness.

In July, the B.C. Court of Appeal disagreed with a lower court ruling and said the hearing should be open, but now the final decision on who will be at the hearing lies with the Supreme Court.

In Victoria, the NDP's attorney general critic Leonard Krog said the criminal trial isn't likely to go ahead for another year.

"It's politically significant because this enormous cloud of corruption that hangs over the Liberal government will be there during the provincial election campaign. This matter has not been determined and the truth is not known yet," said Krog.

Investigation began in 2003

Basi was the ministerial assistant to then Finance Minister Gary Collins and Virk was the ministerial assistant to then Transportation Minister Judith Reid in 2003 when the RCMP and Victoria police raided their offices in the B.C. legislature.

Police said little about the investigation at the time of the raid, only that it was based on information uncovered during a probe of the drug trade and organized crime.

The warrants police used to raid the legislature were sealed and media lawyers, including those representing the CBC, applied to have them unsealed.

In March 2004, a B.C. judge released a summary of the sealed warrants, which indicated police were investigating a possible breach of trust in the sale of the British Columbia Railway Company (BCRC).

Basi and Virk were eventually charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting money and other benefits in the sale of the Crown-owned BCRC line to CN Rail in November 2003.