Accused navy spy's case adjourned until July 4

The case of a Canadian naval intelligence officer accused of spying has been adjourned until next month while his defence lawyer takes time to review the evidence against him.

Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle, who is charged with communicating information to a foreign entity that could harm national interests, is scheduled to return to Halifax provincial court on July 4 for an election and plea.

The 41-year-old security analystwas arrested in January and has been in custody since at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility. He was denied bail in March.

Delisle's lawyer, Mike Taylor, said he was making progress going throughthe information pertaining to the case but needed more time.

"There are a number of layers of review that have to be taken to get the information that we do need released," Taylor told reporters Wednesday. "But it's coming through, and I have no question that the Crown is working diligently to get the information I need."

A broad publication ban was ordered covering evidence presented at his bail hearing and any other facts discussed in court.

Taylor has said the process is slow, because security agencies have to review all information beforehe received it, and some of the material he's been given has been blacked out.

"I have to make a determination on whether I want to challenge any of that information," Taylor said.

1st charge of its kind

There are also thousands of documents, Taylor said.

Delisle was charged under a section of the Security of Information Act that was passed by the House of Commons after the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The RCMP said the charges against him marked the first time anyone had been charged under that section of the act.

Delisle is alleged to have given or sold information to a foreign entity between July 6, 2007, and Jan. 13, 2012.

Until 2010, he worked for both the Chief of Defence Intelligence and at the Strategic Joint Staff, which oversees virtually every major aspect of the military's domestic and international plans and operations. His last posting was in Trinity, a highly secure naval intelligence centre in Halifax where he started work in August of last year.

Delisle, who joined the military as a reservist private in 1996, went on to join the regular forces in 2001. Hewas promoted to sergeant before being accepted as an officer candidate in Kingston, Ont.