FARNBOROUGH, England—The head of jetmaker Airbus criticised a French probe into suspected insider trading at parent EADS, branding it a "show trial".
Tom Enders is one of 17 current or former executives at the European group cited for further investigation by France's stock market regulator following sharp movements in the EADS share price in 2006, when it announced delays to the A380 superjumbo.
A separate police probe reached existing EADS management for the first time last week when a former Airbus finance chief, who now runs an EADS factory in Germany, Andreas Sperl, was detained for two days and placed under formal investigation.
Three former EADS executives had already been placed under investigation, a French legal step which falls short of charges but can prepare the way for trial at a later stage.
Enders, the Airbus chief executive, has denied wrongdoing over the exercise of stock options in the months before the A380 delays became public and drove down EADS shares.
He has not so far been questioned in the case.
He told journalists he was not spending much time thinking about the investigation.
"We have very good lawyers and we have the full support of (EADS Chief Executive) Louis Gallois and the board so I am not too concerned. What I can say is that this is a show trial and a piece of bad theatre and that point needs to be made," he said. Enders was speaking on Saturday at media briefings before the Farnborough air show. Comments from the event were released for publication on Sunday.
Enders is not the first EADS executive to refer to the French investigation as a "show trial," but is the first to vent his feelings in public.
With reputations at stake, Enders' comments reflect growing exasperation inside EADS — a mood which is not helped by details filtering back of apparently austere conditions in which suspects are held, according to people close to the matter.
As in other recent investigations, suspects are held in a police cell for 48 hours and then brought — often in the glare of photographers — before judges who can decide in closed hearing whether to free them or order a formal investigation.
EADS Defence and Security chief Stefan Zoller, another serving executive widely reported to be on the AMF suspect list, which was leaked to the press, said he found it "very difficult to understand" what he was suspected of.
EADS has filed a protest about press leaks in the case and has said that its board stands by its current management.
Gallois, who has predicted a long investigation, said "pressure on the company and managers concerned" arising from the AMF inquiry were one of a number of challenges facing Europe's largest aerospace company this year.
He has consistently said he stands by the management team.
Besides Sperl, others placed under investigation in the case are former EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard, former Airbus chief Gustav Humbert and former EADS international director Jean-Paul Gut. All deny doing anything wrong.
Judges did not restrict Sperl's movements or impose any constraints that would interfere with the serving executive's work at the company, an EADS executive told Reuters.
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