LONDON : Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper wing News International, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges linked to the phone-hacking scandal that brought down his News of the World tabloid.
Brooks, 45, denied five charges including conspiracy to hack phones, conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
She appeared in a packed courtroom in London alongside several other former News International staff and her husband Charlie Brooks. All of the defendants denied the charges and were released on bail to face trial later this year.
Australian-born media tycoon Murdoch was forced to shut down the News of the World in July 2011, following a storm of allegations that its staff illegally accessed the voicemail messages of a murdered schoolgirl as well as hundreds of celebrities and public figures.
Brooks was editor of the News of the World between 2000 and 2003 before going on to edit its sister newspaper The Sun. She became CEO of News International in 2009.
She and her personal assistant Cheryl Carter are accused of trying to remove boxes of evidence from the News International archive in the days before and after the fall of the News of the World.
Like Brooks, former News of the World news editor James Weatherup and former managing editor Stuart Kuttner denied conspiracy to hack phones between 2000 and 2006.
Prosecutors claim the other defendants, including Brooks' husband, former News International security chief Mark Hanna and chauffeur Paul Edwards, hid documents, computers and other evidence from police.
The hacking scandal rocked Murdoch's media empire and embarrassed Prime Minister David Cameron, who is friends with Brooks and her husband.
Dozens of people have been arrested under three police investigations spawned by the scandal while a judicial inquiry into press ethics has led to proposals to overhaul media regulation in Britain.
Judge Brian Leveson, who heard from dozens of victims of media intrusion during eight months of hearings at the inquiry, said in his final report in November that the press had "wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people".