Ex-PM of Libya wins $79,000 libel damages from British newspaper for Gaddafi allegation

The UK-based newspaper, Mirror, has paid substantial damages to the Former Prime Minister of Libyan UN-led government, Fayez al-Sarraj, to the sum of £65,000 ($79,000), UK-based barristers chambers reports.

According to the report, Fayez al-Sarraj brought a libel claim against MGN Ltd, the publisher of the Mirror.

Mr Fayez al-Sarraj led an UN-backed administration after the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.

In an article on 23 July 2021, the Mirror had identified him as the Prime Minister of Libya “under Colonel Gaddafi” and claimed that he had bought a passport of the microstate Vanuatu to distance himself from that past.

Barrister Mark Henderson told the High Court that: “The Article naturally caused the claimant serious distress and damage. The allegations about him were completely false. He had no association whatsoever with Gaddafi’s odious regime.”

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