Shahbaz Sharif successful at first round in defamation case against Daily Mail
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February 6, 2021
LONDON/LAHORE: The London High Court Friday ruled in favour of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and his son-in-law Ali Imran Yousaf in relation to the meaning of reporter David Rose’s article published on 14 July 2019, alleging that Shahbaz and his son-in-law were involved in money-laundering and embezzlement of the British money meant for Pakistan’s poor people.
Justice Sir Matthew Nicklin ruled that Mail on Sunday’s article carried the highest level of defamatory meaning for both Shahbaz Sharif and Ali Imran Yousaf.
The Daily Mail had contested that the words used in the article were not defamatory but the judge ruled that the level of defamation to Shahbaz Sharif was Chase level 1 – the highest form of defamation in English law – on all counts raised by Sharif’s lawyers in their arguments and Ali Imran Yousaf’s defamation was Chase Level 1 in one instance an