By Selena Hill (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Apr 25, 2013 03:13 PM EDT

A photographer and a publishing executive have been charged for printing topless photos of Kate Middleton while see was vacationing with Prince William last summer, French authorities announced Thursday.

In the series of photos, the Duchess of Cambridge is seen sunbathing at a Provence chateau in southern France without her bikini top on, and also with her backside exposed, as her bathing suit bottom was partially pulled down.

After an investigation, Ernesto Maurim, who oversees the French magazine Closer, was charged with invasion of privacy for publishing the topless photos.

Photographer Valerie Suau was also charged, though she denies taking the semi-nude photos of the 31-year-old mother-to-be for regional newspaper La Provence. An unidentified paparazzo is credited with the pics.

According to the Associated Press, Closer editor Laurence Pieau defended the pictures because they were taken from a public road.

"For me the pictures were not shocking," she said. "Just an in-love couple in the south of France."

Middleton and the prince sued the Closer and a court subsequently barred publication of more photos in September. However, the images were still published in Italy, Ireland and Sweden and can still be seen with a simple Google search. On the other hand, no major British publication carried the photos, including Rupert Murdoch's top-selling U.K. tabloid The Sun, which published photos of a naked Prince Harry cavorting in a Las Vegas hotel room last year.

British royals called the photos a "grotesque and totally unjustifiable" abuse of privacy.  

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