(London) British justice on Friday ordered the holding of a trial for the publisher of the tabloid The Sun, sued by comedian Hugh Grant for gathering illegal information.
The trial is due to be held in January.
The 62-year-old British actor notably accuses the Sun, whose publisher NGN denies any illegal process, of having used private detectives.
Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that the lawsuits brought by Hugh Grant should be dealt with at trial, except for a part of them, relating to telephone hacking. The magistrate considered that the actor should have initiated the proceedings earlier in this regard.
A similar procedure was initiated by Prince Harry. A decision on the holding of a trial will be known in the coming months.
In his conclusions, Hugh Grant accuses the Sun of “illegal acts” including “sponsored burglaries, invasion of private property to obtain information by placing microphones, listening to landline telephones”, as well as “telephone hacking and recourse to private investigators to accomplish the whole thing”.
A spokesperson for NGN said the phone hacking charges were dismissed, saying the group “strongly denies the charges of unlawful information gathering contained in what remains of Mr. Grant”.
Welcoming the judge’s decision, Hugh Grant said it was “necessary for the truth to come out” about the Sun’s activities, stressing that this case “goes far beyond voicemail interceptions”.
