According to Radio 100,7, the long-awaited trial will go ahead in “early 2019”. The radio was citing Henri Eppers, a spokesman for the justice administration. The three are accused of breaking data protection and privacy protection laws. They stem from the secret recording and sharing of an encrypted CD that allegedly contains a recording of a conversation about the so-called “Bommeleeër affair” between former prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and the Grand Duke Henri. The CD had the codename “frisbee”.

The postponement of the trial was made necessary because Juncker will be called as a witness, and he said at the time that he could not find space in his schedule as president of the European Commission to attend court. Juncker’s five-year term as president will come to an end in the autumn of 2019--he has announced that he will not be seeking a second term after next May’s European Parliament elections.

The case could rest on whether Juncker, as prime minister and de facto head of the secret service, gave his authorization for the agents to spy on Srel IT technician Loris Mariotto. Juncker told a parliamentary enquiry into the mismanagement of the secret service that he had not given his authorization. The accused says they have evidence to the contrary, gathered from an illicit recording made by Mille using a microphone hidden in a now infamous wristwatch of a conversation with Juncker.

The complex story led to the threat of a vote of no confidence in Juncker and his then government in the summer of 2013. But rather than face the vote, Juncker dissolved parliament and called for snap elections. That resulted in his CSV party, despite winning most seats in parliament, being ousted by the current DP, LSAP, Green coalition.