Galloway wins €217,000 over Saddam payroll claims

FORMER Labour MP George Galloway won £150,000 (€217,000) libel damages yesterday over the Daily Telegraph’s allegations that he was in the pay of Saddam Hussein.

The 50-year-old MP for Glasgow Kelvin described the High Court ruling by Mr Justice Eady as a “judicial caning” for The Daily Telegraph, which has been left facing costs of around £1.2 million (€1.7m).

Mr Galloway was present at London’s Law Courts to hear the judge say the newspaper’s argument that the words complained of did not impute personal greed was “quite unsustainable”.

Announcing his decision, he said he was “obliged to compensate Mr Galloway” and to “make an award for the purposes of restoring his reputation”.

Mr Galloway’s case centred on a series of articles published in April 2003 - following discovery of documents in Iraq by Telegraph reporter David Blair - which, he said, “claimed that I had made very substantial secret profits from Saddam Hussein”.

Telegraph Group Limited denied libel, claiming that it was responsible journalism and in the public interest for it to publish the contents.

The judge refused the newspaper permission to appeal, but it can apply directly to the Court of Appeal - it wants to challenge both the ruling on liability and the “excessive” award.

After the ruling, Mr Gallow, now leader of Respect, a coalition between leftist and Islamist groups, said: “I am glad and somewhat humbled to discover that there is at least one corner of the English field which remains uncorrupted and independent and that corner is in this courtroom.”

Asked if he had anything to say about the documents at the centre of the case, the MP said: “The documents are either forgeries or they have been doctored - but they are in any case false.”

On behalf of the Telegraph, executive editor Neil Darbyshire said: “We are naturally disappointed by this judgment, which we believe is a blow to the principle of freedom of expression in this country.

“The Daily Telegraph published genuine documents that emanated from the highest levels of the Iraqi government and raised questions about the activities of Mr Galloway.”

He said it had never been the newspaper’s case to suggest that the allegations contained in the documents were true.