The Simon Artz “Oz Leaks” committal will not start until next year — more than 15 months after it first went to court — as Victoria Police’s top brass move to gag the media from reporting sensitive documents relating to the saga.

In farcical scenes in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this morning, Detective Senior Constable Artz’s senior counsel Bill Stuart, was informed by Magistrate Peter Mealy the case — on which preliminary argument commenced last November — wouldn’t start until 2012 because he was “unavailable”.

Because a three-to-four week window for the trial couldn’t be locked in, it is “unlikely to proceed” this year, Mealy said.

Artz, who is facing jail time if he is found guilty of leaking confidential material to The Australian‘s Cameron Stewart, has had the case hanging over his head since the newspaper’s Quill-winning scoop revealing terror raids on the Melbourne Somali community on the morning they occurred in August 2009.

And even when it does kick off, some key documents and witnesses could be shielded from the public eye. During this morning’s proceedings, a Victoria Police counsel for deputy chief commissioner Kieran Walshe, Gerard Maguire, argued that affidavits signed by Walshe and assistant commissioner Stephen Fontana be hidden from the media because they mentioned a sensitive document in a memorandum of understanding referring to counter terrorism initiatives and major criminal investigations.

“Our concern is … that we are not keen to have that document widely circulated. It may well be that at some point the press would make an application for them.”

Maguire also requested that the identities of number of operational members of the State Intelligence Group called to give evidence in the case be protected.

A lawyer for Nationwide News, David Morgan, repeated his request that the hand-up brief and “any subpoenaed documents” in the case be provided to News — but not to its mastheads. He reiterated the firm’s preference that the Office of Police Integrity draft parliamentary report into the matter, currently the subject of a Federal Court injunction, not be released.

Cameron Stewart is an invidious position in relation to that report because it strikes at the heart of a journalist’s duty to protect their sources. Crikey understands that the actions of the multitude bodies that are parties to the case  — the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, the Australian Federal Police and the OPI will be called into question when the trial finally kicks off with its cavalcade of high-profile witnesses.

Mealy noted that was a “barrel-load” of subpoenaed documents that were still contested, and would have to be ticked-off before the trial commenced.

The case will temporarily return to court on Thursday for more argument on the committal and again on November 7 to hear further submissions on the trollies of disputed docs.