A paralysed witness will not be allowed to give video evidence from his bedside in the trial of a man accused of causing a serious Angus crash.
Krysztof Birula was paralysed from the neck down when the car he was in crashed down an Edzell gorge more than two years ago.
His friend Robert Buzalski has been charged with driving dangerously while one-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit on a dark farm road.
Mr Birula was treated at a specialist spinal unit in Glasgow before returning to his homeland and attempts have been made to allow his crucial evidence in the long-running case to be rubber-stamped by Polish authorities for submission to a jury at Forfar Sheriff Court.
However, the court heard Polish courts will not allow a video link from his bedside.
Buzalski’s solicitor Brian Bell said: “An email intimates the Polish authorities would only allow Mr Birula to give evidence from a court and not any other location.
“Their law does not allow that, although it’s a Scottish trial under Scots law and would not impact on them.”
The prospect of an interrogative letter, which would include defence and Crown questions for Mr Birula to answer at his home, was raised.
This will be brokered for the Procurator Fiscal Service through the International Co-operation Unit.
But Mr Bell said “consideration” would have to be given over whether Buzalski would receive a fair trial if the defence witness could not be examined properly.
A continued first diet was set for October 21.
Buzalski was working with Perth Forestry Services at Inveralmond at the time of the crash on August 24 2013.
The indictment faced by the 36-year-old alleges he seriously injured Mr Birula by driving at excessive speed on the Dalbog Farm road near Edzell when it was dark and raining, braked sharply and lost control, causing the car to strike the gorge of a bank and fall into a river bed.
His alleged alcohol count was 124 milligrammes, against a legal limit of 80.