Australian court asks daily to hand over Scorpene data to DCNS

Newspaper 'The Australian' has been restricted from publishing any more of leaked documents related to India's Scorpene submarine project by the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

A statement by the French shipbuilder DCNS on its website said on Thursday that the court has "confirmed" its preliminary decision taken on Monday, which was supposed to expire at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

The Australian had already withdrawn the documents from its website after Monday's order. The newspaper was also asked to handover the leaked data of India's Scorpene submarine to DCNS.

"The Supreme Court of the State of New South Wales (Australia) confirmed today the preliminary decision it had rendered on Monday, August 29, 2016 against "The Australian". The Australian newspaper, which has already withdrawn, after this first decision, the documents published on its website will provide DCNS with all the documents in its possession and is prohibited from publishing any additional document,' the statement said.

"Confidentiality of information and communication is a matter of upmost importance and DCNS welcomes this decision of the court," DCNS said.

"In parallel to this action, DCNS filed a complaint against unknown persons for breach of trust, receiving the proceeds of an offence and aiding and abetting before the Paris Public Prosecutor."

The journalist who broke the story, Cameron Stewart, in response to an email from IANS on Tuesday had said the newspaper will handover the documents that are on The Australian's website.

"We will handover those few documents which we have placed on the web in redacted form," Stewart told IANS.

DCNS, which is at the centre of a global submarine data leak scandal, wanted to prevent The Australian from releasing any more confidential data contained in the leaked 22,400 secret documents because it may cause harm to its customer -- the Indian Navy.

--IANS

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