Eventually handcuffs arrived for Andy Coulson, former editor of the weekly "News Of the World" and former spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron. Coulson was questioned this morning by London Police about the wiretapping scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's tabloid. Soon after - as reported by the Times - he was arrested.
He is accused of having allowed, during the years of his directorship, a series of illegal practices to obtain scoops for the newspaper: from the bribery of Scotland Yard agents to the illegal interception of private telephone calls. Private investigators in the pay of the Sunday tabloid would have snooped into the conversations of celebrities from show business and politics, football players, members of the royal family and even the families of victims of abuse, kidnappings, terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The scandal has a heavy political fallout, given the close ties between Coulson and Prime Minister Cameron. Today, announcing the opening of an investigation into the case, the premier assumed all the responsibility for having appointed Coulson as his spokesman: it was a decision "mine and mine alone", he said.
