Six people will go on trial on Tuesday over the publication of photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless in France, reports The Guardian.
The case relates to photos printed in the glossy French magazine Closer and the regional daily paper La Provence in September 2012. The publication of the images caused a scandal in Britain and prompted the royal couple to take legal action in France.
Prince William and Kate were holidaying in southern France at a chateau owned by Viscount David Linley, the son of Princess Margaret, the late sister of the Queen.
Laurence Pieau, the editor of Closer in France; Ernesto Mauri, chief executive of the magazine’s owner, the Mondadori group; and Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides, two Paris-based agency photographers suspected of having taken the long-lens photos, will appear on charges of invasion of privacy and complicity.
La Provence’s publishing director at the time, Marc Auburtin, and the photographer Valerie Suau also face related charges. The publication has denied that Suau took any topless images.
The royal couple are not expected to attend the trial in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre.
The case had been delayed for four months after the lawyer for the agency photographers was granted more time to prepare their defence.
Prince William’s Kensington Palace office refused to comment when contacted by Agence France-Presse.
Pieau defended her publication’s actions at the time of the initial scandal, saying the pictures were not in the “least shocking”.