UK Police Refer 11 Phone-Hacking Suspects to Prosecutors
British police probing phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's newspapers have given prosecutors files on 11 suspects after an investigation lasting more than a year, the chief prosecutor said Wednesday.
Four journalists, one police officer and six other people feature in the files that are now being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service for possible charges, director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer said.
"We are now entering a period where we are likely to make a decision one way or another" on whether to charge the suspects, said Starmer.
The offences include misconduct in a public office, breaching Britain's data protection act, perverting the course of justice, witness intimidation and breaches of an act regulating investigatory power.
Revelations that Murdoch's News of the World illegally accessed the voicemails of a murdered schoolgirl, as well as dozens of celebrities, politicians and crime victims forced him to close the Sunday tabloid in July.
Starmer said a total of 43 people arrested under the Scotland Yard operations investigating phone-hacking, illegal payments to police officers and other offences at the News of the World remain on bail.
They include Prime Minister David Cameron's former spokesman Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie Brooks.
An initial 2006 police investigation into hacking led to the jailing of News of the World journalist Clive Goodman and a private detective Glenn Mulcaire, but the tabloid insisted it was a one-off.
Allegations emerged in 2009 that the practice was widespread, but police only reopened a full investigation in January 2011.
The scandal has already cost News International, the British newspaper wing of Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corporation Empire, more than £79 million ($125 million, 96 million euros), company figures revealed this month.
News International has settled with dozens of victims, including British actor Jude Law, footballer Ashley Cole and former deputy prime minister John Prescott.
Source: Agence France Presse
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