Murdoch's firm faces corporate charges over UK phone-hacking

LONDON: UK prosecutors are reportedly considering bringing corporate charges related to the phone- hacking scandal against media mogul Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper publisher.
Scotland Yard is believed to have handed over a file of evidence on News International - now renamed News UK - to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration after an investigation stretching back to 2011, when the 'News of the World' was closed at the height of the scandal.
"We have received a full file of evidence for consideration of corporate liability charges relating to the Operation Weeting phone-hacking investigation," a CPS spokesperson confirmed.

According to the 'Guardian' newspaper, the file was transferred on July 23 and reignites the controversy for Murdoch's News Corp, News UK's parent company, which believed it had been through the worst and come out the other side after an eight-month trial of former 'News of the World' (NOTW) journalists that concluded in June, 2014.

NOTW is the subject of Operation Weeting - a police probe into the phone hacking scandal.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed today, "On 23 July following an investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World, detectives from Operation Weeting submitted a file to the CPS for their consideration".

The CPS has not specified under which law it would consider charges in the scandal in which NOTW journalists intercepted phone voicemails of several people including crime victims and celebrities.

Also today, 'The Financial Times' reported that Murdoch's News Corp is believed to be in talks with former NOTW editor Rebekah Brooks for her return as chief of its UK division four years after she had quit amid the phone-hacking scandal.

Brooks had quit as chief executive in 2011 at the height of the scandal involving the hacking of phone voice mails by journalists though she was later cleared at the trial last year. Her re-appointment could be confirmed by next month, the report said.