Proceedings against former law student and erstwhile politician Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail have been postponed once again.

A preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday has now been put back for a further two months.  This follows an earlier postponement of three months from earlier in the year, to the revised date of May 11th.

"The Preliminary Hearing due to take place on the 11 May 2009 at the High Court in Edinburgh in the above case has now been postponed, following an application under Section 75A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995," the court said in a statement.

"The rescheduled all day Preliminary Hearing will now to take place at the High Court in Edinburgh on 13 July 2009."

It is not specified whether the application came from the Crown or the defenders.  Sheridan had previously publicly criticised the handling of his case by the police and Crown Office since investigations began into allegations of perjury following his defamation victory against the News of the World in 2006.