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 Rebekah Brooks answered "not guilty" in a firm voice at a court hearing at London's Southwark Crown Court, where she appeared along with a dozen others, mostly former News International employees, facing similar charges over the scandal that rocked Britain's establishment.
Also in the dock were Brooks' husband, Charlie, and former News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman, who like Brooks entered pleas of "not guilty" and also will face criminal trials.
Brooks is accused along with others of intercepting voice mail messages, conspiracy to commit misconduct involving public officials and obstructing a police investigation by withholding evidence.
The phone hacking scandal erupted in 2011, after it was revealed that journalists at News International's now-shuttered News of the World tabloid routinely hacked into the voice mail messages of the rich, the powerful and other potential information sources.
The scandal spawned a police investigation and a host of official inquiries. Allegations of wrongdoing have since spread to other papers outside the Murdoch empire, and scores of journalists, police officials and executives have been arrested or dismissed from their jobs.
[Associated
Press]
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