Galloway wins libel dispute(Daily Telegraph)

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Britain's George Galloway has won a long-running libel dispute with the Daily Telegraph after the newspaper agreed to drop a final appeal and pay the politician £150 000 (about R1.6m) in damages. The newspaper had said it would launch an appeal to the House of Lords after it lost an earlier appeal in January over a 2003 story saying Galloway had been "in the pay" of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

On Thursday, the paper said it had dropped the case. 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 Galloway had received £375 000 (about R4m) a year in payoffs from the Iraqi government, which he has denied. "The Telegraph Group has decided not to petition for leave to appeal," said a spokesperson for the newspaper.

Galloway said the Telegraph would have to pay the legal costs of both sides. "I put everything I had on the line in this case and I have been totally vindicated," he said. "I'm obviously delighted to have finally won, but I'm extremely vexed that this has taken so long to settle."


http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1882491,00.html

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