LONDON (AP) – British prosecutors say they are considering corporate charges against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. over phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.
The news comes amid reports that former editor and Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks is poised to return to the company.
London’s Metropolitan Police said Saturday it had submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service last month. Prosecutors confirmed they had “received a full file of evidence for consideration of corporate liability charges” relating to phone hacking.
A decision about whether to prosecute rests with Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that former News of the World editor Brooks, who quit News Corp. when the hacking scandal broke four years ago, would return to head Murdoch’s British newspaper division, which includes the Times, Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers.