Brooks, husband charged with perjury in phone-hacking scandal

, May 15: Rebekah Brooks, a close aide of media baron Rupert Murdoch and former Chief Executive of News International, will face charges of perjury in connection with the phone-

scandal, the Crown Prosecution Service today said.

Brooks, who was arrested on 13 March and was on bail, deposed before the Leveson Inquiry on Friday. Her husband, Charlie Brooks, has also been charged with perjury. If convicted, the two face a jail sentence. Brooks was the editor of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid when voicemails on murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's mobile phone were illegally intercepted.

Revelation of this illegal act last summer sparked off a raft of inquiries and a series of developments across British press, politics and the police. Brooks was arrested on 13 March on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice as part of Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police's investigation into phone-hacking. The police had sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to assess whether charges could be brought against Brooks and her husband.

The CPS has now decided that the charges can be brought against them. The police had sent similar files to the CPS on five other people on 27 March who were arrested as part of the phone-hacking. Rebekah and Charlie Brooks said: "We deplore this weak and unjust decision." After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS, we will respond later today after our return from the police station.

PTI