A rchive Date
[ 19-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[http://canoe.ca/CNEWSMediaNews0204/18_paper-ap.html
Paper apologizes to Gadhafi's son
By THOMAS WAGNER-- The Associated Press
Thursday, April 18, 2002
LONDON (AP) - The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi dropped his libel suit Thursday after a British newspaper apologized for what it said were inaccurate articles nearly seven years ago that called him an "untrustworthy maverick" with his own sinister "henchmen."
Saif Gadhafi, a 29-year-old architect and engineer, accepted the apology by The Sunday Telegraph in the case which had recently gone to trial.
Outside the High Court, a smiling Gadhafi said: "I came here to London to clear my name and correct these false things. I'm very happy now they have corrected the mistake. ... I'm going to call my father, and I think he will be happy."
A suit involved two articles. The first in late 1995 alleged that Gadhafi attempted by subterfuge to arrange a deal with an Egyptian banking syndicate to break U.N. sanctions by obtaining $8 billion in hard currency. This was described as the first step in an operation to buy huge amounts of counterfeit Iranian currency that would be used to flood the Iranian economy.
The second article came after an attempt by a friend of Gadhafi's to arrange a meeting with the author of the first article to request a correction.
The newspaper had suggested that "henchmen" of Gadhafi's had contacted the author with a view to luring him to Libya to meet a sinister fate.
Gadhafi's attorney, James Price, said the goal of the libel suit was to obtain a retraction and apology. Price said the newspaper had approached Gadhafi through an intermediary before and during the trial to ask him to consider settling the case.
In the settlement, The Sunday Telegraph accepted that the articles were inaccurate and agreed to apologize to Gadhafi in court and in its next edition, said Price and Geoffrey Robertson, an attorney for the Telegraph Group Ltd.
"The settlement of this action is at the initiation of The Sunday Telegraph, which has agreed to make a substantial contribution to the claimant's costs," Robertson said.
A separate statement by the newspaper's editor, Dominic Lawson, said: "Since publication in 1995, we have made numerous attempts to resolve this complaint. We are delighted that we have at long last reached a settlement which both protects our sources and which does not require us to pay any damages."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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