Thursday marks five years since Melinda Vasilje was fatally stabbed in her apartment on Country Hill Drive in Kitchener.
The trial for the man accused in her death, Ager Hasan, was scheduled to begin Monday. But CTV Kitchener has learned it’s been delayed until January 2023.
Hasan is charged with second-degree murder.
He was arrested in Texas two months after Vasilje was killed.
The trial was originally scheduled to start in 2019 but has now faced a series of delays.
Ari Goldkind, a lawyer not involved with this case says typically a trial must take place within 30 months of the arrest, but the timeline can be extended if the delay is caused by the accused.
“If the crown can show the crown has done nothing to delay this, it’s not on the state, it’s not on the attorney general but it’s really a delay that lies at the accused’s feet, that’s a much tougher case for the accused to have tossed ,” said Goldkind.
CTV Kitchener also reached out to the family of Melinda Vasilje.
“It’s been five years and we still don’t have closure,” they said.
The trial is rescheduled to nine months from now, in January 2023.