As is customary, the Metropolitan Police declined to name the
suspects but did say in
a statement
that a 43-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man were arrested at
their homes in Oxfordshire, where the Brookses live.
In the statement, police also confirmed that six people, ages 38 to
49, were arrested in dawn raids in London, Hampshire, Hertfordshire
and Oxfordshire “on suspicion of
conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
.”
Operation Weeting is one of three police inquiries related to the
phone-hacking scandal that has rocked Britain’s establishment and
led to the
closure
in July of the News of the World. Allegations that the tabloid’s
reporters had illegally intercepted hundreds of voice mails
triggered several high-profile resignations, including those of
Brooks, then News International’s chief executive, and Andy Coulson,
Cameron’s communications director and a former News of the World
editor.
According to observers, the Brookses’ arrests could further call
into question the judgment of Cameron, who is in Washington on an
official visit.
Cameron’s friendship with the couple was pushed into the spotlight
this month after reports that Scotland Yard had lent Rebekah Brooks
a retired police horse named Raisa.
After much prevarication by his office, Cameron conceded that he had
ridden Raisa on the Brookses’ rural estate. Quickly nicknamed
“horsegate,”
the situation was widely seen as reflecting the cozy relationship
between the police, politicians and journalists that has marked the
phone-hacking scandal.
“I have known Charlie Brooks, the husband of Rebekah Brooks, for
over 30 years, and he is a good friend, and he is a neighbor in the
constituency. We live a few miles apart,” Cameron told reporters
this month, stressing that he last rode with Brooks before becoming
prime minister in 2010.
Rebekah Brooks, who is often described as being like a daughter to
Murdoch, was arguably the most powerful woman in the British
newspaper industry before she resigned last summer. Within days of
stepping down as the head of Murdoch’s British operation, she was
arrested
on suspicion of phone hacking and corruption. She was later released
on bail and has denied any knowledge of illegal activity at News
International.
Murdoch has continued to back his former protege. When horsegate
erupted, he sprang to her defense, tweeting: “Now they are
complaining about R Brooks saving an old horse from the glue
factory!”
News International declined to confirm reports of the Brookses’
arrests, but a spokeswoman said that Mark Hanna, News
International’s head of security, was among those arrested Tuesday
morning.
With three police investigations and a government-commissioned
probe of media ethics underway, barely a week goes by in Britain
without further allegations of wrongdoing by the nation’s tabloid
journalists.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said that as of Tuesday, 22 people
had been arrested in Operation Weeting, while 23 had been arrested
in Operation Elveden, an investigation of journalists allegedly
bribing public officials. Three more people have been arrested in
Operation Tuleta, an investigation of breaches of privacy and
computer hacking.
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