London (CNN) of Britain Prince Harry He has appeared at the High Court in London to attend his claim against Associated Newspapers Ltd over allegations of illegal information gathering.
Last year, the Duke of Sussex joined a group of high-profile figures including singer Elton John in legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online.
The suit alleges that Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) engaged in various criminal activities over the years to obtain information about high profile individuals.
Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, David Furnish and Doreen Lawrence are the remaining plaintiffs behind the legal action.
According to a statement from their representatives at the time, they said they were “victims of hate crimes and gross violations of privacy.”
The The group blamed ANL Hiring private investigators to carry out illegal activities such as installing listening devices in homes and cars and recording private calls. In addition, it claims the publisher pays corrupt police officers, engages in impersonation and fraud to obtain medical records, and hacks into bank accounts and financial transactions through “illegal means and manipulation.”
Monday marks the start of a four-day preliminary hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, during which ANL is expected to try to have the case thrown out.
The publisher dismissed the allegations as “vicious smears” and called it a “premeditated and orchestrated attempt to drag the mailers into the phone hacking scandal,” according to PA Media.
An ANL spokesman added that the claims were “baseless and highly defamatory without any credible evidence,” according to Britain’s PA Media news agency.
The case against ANL is one of several launched by Prince Harry in recent years.
After that he filed a case against ANL as well The Mail published a story in Sunday’s newspaper About his separate legal proceedings against the UK Home Office against his family Security arrangements When going to Britain.
Meanwhile, he was also sued Owns UK tabloid newspapers Sun and Daily Mirror Alleged historical phone hacking in 2019. The case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror is due to go to trial in May.
The 38-year-old royal’s surprise appearance in London on Monday was seen as his first trip back to the UK since he and his wife Meghan attended the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II in September.
In the months since, Sussex has released a Netflix docu-series and memoir of the Duke, which provided further insight into his fractured relationship with the rest of the royal family.
Harry is not expected to see his brother, the Prince of Wales, a royal source told CNN. The source added that since it was a school holiday, Prince William was not in Windsor.
