French court blocks new Airbus insider trading trial

(Adds details, lawyer's quote)

By Chine Labbé and Tim Hepher

PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - France's Constitutional Court on Wednesday effectively blocked a trial involving charges of insider trading at Airbus Group (Swiss: AIR.SW - news) , finding the rules that sparked one of the country's most high-profile corporate cases were unconstitutional.

The 10-member court, including former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, called on the government to change the law so people who have already been investigated by the AMF stock market regulator cannot go on to face a criminal trial.

In the meantime, it blocked cases currently under way, meaning the trial that lasted just one day before being suspended last October must be definitively called off.

The decision brings to an end eight years of administrative and legal turmoil sparked by delays to the A380 superjumbo.

Seven current and former managers and two former industrial shareholders were accused of illegally selling shares in March 2006, in what was then known as EADS, in the knowledge that things were about to go wrong for the world's largest airliner.

They were also accused of pre-empting a costly decision to change strategy on the A350, which entered service this year.

All denied the insider trading charges and argued their trial should be halted because they had already been cleared by the AMF in 2009, breaching a "double jeopardy" rule recently upheld by European courts.

The Constitutional Court has now upheld the protest, meaning the criminal court must now order the trial halted.

The lawyer for Alain Flourens, current head of the A380 programme and one of the seven individual defendants, said he was delighted with the decision.

"The Constitutional Court has vindicated us and decided that the original acquittal by the AMF was definitive and can't be revisited," he said. "It's the right solution".

Airbus Group said it had no immediate comment. (Editing by Mark John and David Holmes)