Remedia defendants request further hearing postponement

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court on Wednesday postponed the commencement of the trial in the Remedia tainted baby formula scandal until July. The postponement followed requests from the defendants' lawyers on the basis that the trial could not continue until evidence was received from Germany. Also, attorneys for the Health Ministry defendants requested that their hearings be held separately. The trial was last postponed in October 2008, when lawyers for some of the defendants told the judge that they had not had enough time to prepare their defense and that the prosecution had failed to supply all the necessary evidence. They had asked to postpone the trial for a year, but the judge granted less than five months. The defense lawyers had also claimed that the prosecution was concealing documents. The Remedia scandal emerged in 2003, when three babies died and more than 20 others suffered severe injuries after being fed the baby formula. It took five years for the state to file an indictment against eight people involved in the affair, including three senior company officials and five Health Ministry employees. Dan Izenberg contributed to this report.