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| Britain |
| Galloway vs Telegraph libel case reaches court |
| 2004-11-15 |
| Former Labour MP George Galloway's long running legal action against the Daily Telegraph reaches court on Monday. The Glasgow Kelvin MP issued libel proceedings against the newspaper over allegations he accepted £375,000 in oil money from Saddam Hussein's regime. It has taken more than a year for the legal battle to reach the High Court in London where Mr Galloway is expected to listen to the opening speeches. The newspaper is standing by its right to publish the story. As well as the Telegraph, another American publication made similar claims about Mr Galloway receiving money but it has since paid him damages and apologised, saying the documents it relied on were false. The anti-war MP, who was expelled from the Labour Party, says it was a smear by his enemies. He has strenuously denied the claims and is suing the Daily Telegraph. The paper is defending the action, claiming it was entitled to report the allegations in the public interest. The case could last for three weeks. That's a lot of popcorn. Anyone want to predict the outcome? |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #3 May the Daily Telegraph not only gain a legal victory, but hope crook Galloway is exposed even more and this suit backfires on him. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-11-15 12:19:36 PM |
| #2 Galloway's lawyer's begun by serving up a whole heap of the steaming proverbial: "Galloway 'fought Saddam tyranny' Mr Rampton told the court the Glasgow Kelvin MP's interest in the Middle East dated back to the 1970s. "One of his interests has been to champion what he sees as the need for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people in the Middle East," he said. "He has also been a longstanding opponent of tyranny and oppression. That has particular reference to this case because one of his targets dating from the Seventies was the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein and his cronies in Iraq. He has been entirely consistent about that ever since that date up until the fall of Saddam Hussein more recently. He has been the leader of a campaign against the regime and for the sake of the Iraqi people at a time, and through the whole of the period, when Western governments were in great good friendship with Saddam Hussein." The QC acknowledged the MP was sometimes called colourful or controversial. "He may prefer it if one called him a passionate character," he said. Mr Rampton said Mr Galloway had only met Saddam on two occasions. "The first time was in 1994 when, as he himself freely admits, he put his foot in his mouth by making some remarks which were open to interpretation - and needless to say were interpreted - as some kind of fawning praise for Saddam Hussein's personal courage and strength. "It wasn't what he meant to say, it was not in his mind to say, because he had no respect or admiration for Saddam Hussein whatsoever." The second time they met was in August 2002 when Mr Galloway wanted to try to persuade Saddam to readmit weapons inspectors. Saddam Hussein told Mr Galloway he did not have any weapons of mass destruction. "Mr Galloway did not believe him. As we now know, Saddam Hussein was telling the truth," Mr Rampton added. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-11-15 10:35:14 AM |
| #1 No prediction, but I would dearly love to see him nailed to the wall, the scurvy collaborator bitch. I have no doubts that he was on the take, whether the Telegraph has the legitimate goods on him or not. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-11-15 8:05:16 AM |