The parents of a man whose accused murderer was set free due to an unreasonable trial delay are asking why it’s taking politicians so long to address the problem.

Amine and Nicole Nayel’s son Fouad Nayel, 28, was killed five years ago. A man was charged with first-degree murder but a judge stayed the charge last summer and ordered him released over the accused’s "right to be tried within a reasonable time.”

That’s because he had been jailed for four years. The 2016 Supreme Court decision in R. v. Jordan stipulates that trials for the most serious crimes must happen within 30 months of arrest, while trials for less serious crimes must happen within 18 months.

Courts routinely go over those limits and, as a result, judges have been forced to release people accused of serious crimes, including accused murderers in Alberta and Quebec and men accused of sexual assault in Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

Nicole Nayel, Fouad’s mother, says she often wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about the case.

“I would never see my grandchildren, I would never see my son,” she adds. “But he’s walking down the street.”

“It hurts badly,” she says. “And where are the politicians?”

Several provincial justice ministers met with their federal counterpart, Jody Wilson-Raybould, on Friday in Gatineau, Que.

Wilson-Raybould told reporters after the meeting that she “appreciated” the discussion around abolishing some mandatory minimum penalties, which she sees as one way to speed things up.

The Canadian Bar Association says mandatory minimum sentences can cause more cases to end up at a trial, because offenders believe negotiating a plea will not result in a reduced sentence. Going to trial is more costly and time-consuming.

Another way to speed things up would be to fill the current slate of judicial vacancies. Some provinces have found funding to create more positions, but the federal government still has 59 judge vacancies.

Conservative Justice Critic Michael Cooper says it is taking too long. “The minister continues to sit on her hands, has refused to take action, and frankly the minister’s inaction is nothing short of negligence,” he said.

The ministers say they have a framework to fix the systemic delays and said they will meet again in September. In the meantime, more accused criminals are expected to go free.

With a report from CTV’s Kevin Gallagher and files from The Canadian Press