A COURT in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre has ordered the French edition of ‘Closer’ magazine to surrender all its copies of the photographs which show the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless, and banned their further publication.
The magazine has been ordered to hand over the photographs within the next 24 hours, with a fine of €10,000 for each day that they fail to comply with the order.
The court has also banned any further publication of the images in France, AP reported.
The ruling came as a French prosecutor opened preliminary criminal investigations into the publication of the topless pictures, following a complaint lodged by the royal couple yesterday.
The complaint allows the prosecutor to decide whether to proceed with a full investigation of allegations that the taking of and publication of the pictures breached the couple’s right to privacy under French law. The prosecutor will also have to decide who any criminal proceedings are directed against.
The royals’ complaint cites persons unknown but aides have said they want proceedings brought against both the editor of Closer magazine, and the photographer or photographers who took the images of the couple sunbathing at a chateau in southern France earlier this month.
The editor of the Irish Daily Star, Mick O’Kane, was last night suspended with immediate effect as an investigation is carried out into the paper’s reprinting of the photographs from Closer magazine.
The initial investigation will be carried out by the BRDP, a branch of the police responsible for dealing with attacks on individuals which notably handled a probe into a French writer’s sexual assault allegations against former IMF supremo Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Additional reporting by AFP
Read: Irish Daily Star editor suspended over topless Kate pictures >
Read: Shatter to examine privacy legislation after publication of Kate pictures >
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