Adil Raja loses pleas to dismiss Naseer’s defamation suits

The British High Court has rejected all the pleas of YouTuber Adil Raja for dismissing defamation suits filed by Brig (r) Rashid Naseer, 24NewsHD TV channel reports.

The court ordered the YouTuber to pay 10,000 pounds to Rashid Naseer. The court held that Adil defamed the ex-serviceman on social media – Twitter/X, Facebook and YouTube.

His lawyer argued that the case of Naseer should be stayed on several grounds. However, the court rejected all his arguments including the allegations that Pakistan was an authoritarian state in which the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) controlled the judiciary and the government and election manipulations.

The judge ruled that 9 out of the 10 publications published by Adil were defamatory of Naseer at common law and were matters of fact, rather than expressions of opinion. Naseer’s name surfaced when former PM Imran Khan named him as Mr ‘X’ and made baseless allegations – the allegations Imran and his party stepped back from and failed to prove at any forum.

UK court asks Adil to pay 10,000 pounds to Naseer by tahir dogar on Scribd

In a separate application, Adil requested the court to make Naseer pay a sum of £250,000 as security for his costs because Naseer is based in Pakistan and suing in the UK. However, the court rejected this too, agreeing d with the lawyers for Naseer that he would give an undertaking that his solicitors would hold only £4,000 as security. Adil Raja has been living in the UK since April 2022.

In his application, Raja had also sought anonymity for his witnesses, and the court agreed with the position of Naseer’s lawyers and allowed Raja’s application to anonymise his witnesses but only up until the witness statements are exchanged.

The retired military officer sued Raja, asserting that the retired major deliberately spread false information about him to cause harm and profit from fake news on social media.