Galloway accepts damages over Iraq libel

MP George Galloway accepted undisclosed High Court libel damages and a public apology today over an article which said he had opposed the conflict in Iraq because he had been paid by Saddam's regime.

His solicitor, Mark Bateman, told Mr Justice Eady that the allegations in The Christian Science Monitor in April last year were "false and without foundation".

Mr Galloway, the Independent MP for Glasgow Kelvin, was at London's High Court to hear Mr Bateman say that the article in the Boston–based newspaper, which publishes in the UK through the Internet, reported on documents which had been given to a journalist by an Iraqi general.

These, he said, purported to show that Mr Galloway had received payments of more than 10 million US dollars in return for his support of Saddam Hussein's regime.

According to the article, the payments pointed to a concerted effort by the regime to win friends in the west who could promote Iraqi interests, firstly by lifting sanctions against Iraq and later in blocking war plans.

One of the documents was reported as stating that payments were made to Mr Galloway in return for his "courageous and daring stands against the enemies of Iraq, like Blair, the British Prime Minister, and for his opposition in the House of Commons and Lords against all outrageous lies against our patient people".

Mr Bateman said: "The allegations contained in the Christian Science Monitor's story that Mr Galloway opposed the UN–imposed sanctions on Iraq and, thereafter, opposed the recent conflict in Iraq because he had been paid by the Iraqi regime are false and without foundation.

"The allegations were highly defamatory of Mr Galloway. Understandably, they caused immense distress and anxiety to Mr Galloway, his family, his consitituents and supporters.

"Mr Galloway was not willing to let his reputation be impugned in this way."

Outside court, a smiling Mr Galloway would not be drawn on the amount of damages, except to say that they were "substantial" and he was very happy with the sum.

He added: "Baghdad is the forgery capital of the world and this settlement here today demonstrates that there was a dirty tricks operation mounted against me and other prominent opponents of the war in the aftermath of the fall of the old regime.

"Britain is the co–occupier of Iraq and here we have evidence, irrefutable evidence, of a crime, a conspiracy, committed against a British Member of Parliament.

"I demand that the British Prime Minister requires our staff in our embassy in Baghdad to investigate this matter – to interview this general, who is under their jurisdiction as the co–occupying power, to discover who forged these documents, why they forged these docuements and what other documents they forged."