The British High Court judge Richard Spearman has ruled against former army officer and YouTuber Adil Raja. The judge ordered him to publicly apologize to retired Brigadier Rashid Naseer on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and his website pages.
The court also directed Adil Raja to pay £310,000 in damages and legal costs by December 22. This includes £50,000 in damages and £260,000 for legal expenses, with additional costs to be calculated later.
Adil Raja is barred from repeating any defamatory statements in the future. While his lawyer indicated plans to challenge the ruling in the Court of Appeal. This follows an earlier October ruling in which Adil Raja lost a defamation case against Brigadier Naseer.
In that decision, the court rejected Adil Raja’s claims as ‘baseless’ and ordered him to pay £50,000 in damages while publishing a summary clarifying that the allegations were defamatory and that Naseer had won the case.
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Brigadier Naseer had approached the court over ‘ten posts’ by Adil Raja on social media, which he claimed were defamatory. These included allegations that Naseer manipulated the Lahore High Court (LHC), interfered in elections, bribed politicians, used police to defeat PTI candidates, and engaged in horse-trading for General (R) Bajwa.
During today’s hearing, Brigadier Naseer was present in court while Adil Raja’s lawyers represented him. Adil Raja, however, maintains he will appeal the decision.
