Paris

AN insider trading trial of seven current and former executives of the Airbus Group, as well as two of its former shareholders, was suspended just hours after it began on Friday to let a higher French court rule on the constitutionality of the procedure.

The decision came after lawyers representing the defendants moved to have the criminal case dismissed on human rights grounds because the accused had already been cleared by the French stock market regulator of similar allegations five years ago, in a case that dates to 2006.