Rebekah Brooks bailed after phone-hack arrest—spokesman

LONDON – British police on Monday bailed Rebekah Brooks, the former head of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper wing, following her arrest over the phone-hacking scandal, her spokesman told AFP.

“I can confirm that she (Brooks) was released earlier this evening and has been bailed until late October,” her spokesman David Wilson said.

Scotland Yard earlier said it had arrested a 43-year-old woman in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.

“At approximately midnight, the woman was bailed to return to a London police station on a date in late October,” added the police statement.

Brooks was arrested at around midday (1100 GMT) Sunday and questioned for 12 hours over claims she conspired to intercept communications and that the News of the World newspaper, of which she was editor, paid police for stories.

The former News International chief executive was quizzed by officers from Operation Weeting together with officers from Operation Elveden.

Operation Weeting is the hacking investigation which the force reopened in January. Operation Elveden is a separate probe looking at payments by the News of the World to police officers in return for information.

“She was arrested by appointment at a London police station on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906,” the statement added.

Those arrested so far over the scandal include Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communications chief and one-time News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

Coulson’s deputy, Neil Wallis, was arrested last Thursday.

The force’s chief, Paul Stephenson, quit dramatically on Sunday after he was linked to Wallis.

According to reports in Sunday’s press, Stephenson accepted a five-week stay earlier this year at a luxury health spa where Wallis worked as a PR consultant.

Scotland Yard has also faced questions over why it hired Wallis, who went on to become the paper’s executive editor, as an advisor two months after he quit the tabloid in 2009.

In April police arrested News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, 50, and former assistant editor (news) Ian Edmondson.