BRITAIN: Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper lost its libel appeal against politician George Galloway yesterday over a story saying he had been "in the pay" of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
A High Court ruling in December 2004 ordered the paper to pay Mr Galloway £150,000 (€218,030) for the accusation, which the politician had always denied.
Had the Telegraph succeeded in its appeal, Mr Galloway would have faced a legal bill estimated at about £2 million (€2.9 million).
The newspaper based its story on documents it said it found in the abandoned Iraqi foreign ministry building in Baghdad after the invasion to topple Saddam in 2003.
The report claimed Mr Galloway had received £375,000 (€545,080) a year in payoffs from the Iraqi government.
"The Daily Telegraph did not at any stage seek to justify those defamatory statements as true," Sir Anthony Clarke said in dismissing the newspaper's challenge yesterday.
"It defended the actions only on the basis of privilege and fair comment. The judge rejected both defences.
"He was, in our judgment right to do so. It follows that the appeal on liability must be dismissed. We also dismiss the appeal on damages for the reasons given."
Neil Darbyshire, deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph, said it would consider launching another appeal at the House of Lords.
"Even though the ruling has gone in his favour, it is important to stress that Mr Galloway has not been 'cleared' of anything today," Mr Darbyshire said in a statement.
"Neither has the Daily Telegraph been 'convicted' of anything. At no point in the judgment is the Daily Telegraph said to have been motivated by malice, or to have told any deliberate untruths."
The newspaper had argued that it had privilege against libel, saying it was in the public interest to publish the documents.
It used the so-called "Reynolds" libel defence which says information about which there is no assertion of truth could nevertheless be published due to public interest.
Mr Galloway (51) was expelled from prime minister Tony Blair's Labour Party in 2003 over his outspoken opposition to the Iraq war.
Two years later, standing for the leftist Respect party, he overturned a Labour majority of more than 10,000 to win the parliamentary seat of Bow and Bethnal Green in one of the most bitter campaigns of last May's election.
The flamboyant politician was unable to react to the court ruling yesterday as he was appearing in the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother. However last night he became the fourth person to be voted out. - (Reuters)