Galloway pays aide damages for sex slur
Court apology from ex-MP
LEFT-WING Scots maverick George Galloway apologised to his former parliamentary aide yesterday after he withdrew claims she had slept with her policeman husband at his home.
The former MP agreed to pay a fivefigure damages sum to Aisha AliKhan over the defamatory comments and an allegation she had run a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against him.
Mr Galloway had accused his former assistant of spreading lies about him and his Respect party and of spying on him for the police.
Miss Ali-Khan launched libel proceedings against him at the High Court in London and was present to hear his apology. Mr Galloway did not attend but his lawyer read a statement on his behalf.
The claims of dirty tricks and spying first appeared on Mr Galloway’s website in 2012 and his spokesman later repeated the allegations to The Mail on Sunday. He said Miss Ali-Khan had used the politician’s home for secret trysts with a counter-terrorism officer.
The former teacher became a parliamentary assistant to Mr Galloway in 2012 after he won a by-election in Bradford West. She stayed at his home in Streatham, South London, while a constituency office was set up.
Mr Galloway’s spokesman claimed she and her policeman ‘lover’ had used his house for sexual liaisons while he was abroad and had set up fake email addresses to spread lies about him.
But Miss Ali-Khan, 35, who was married to the policeman, said the allegations were not true and had seriously injured her reputation and caused her embarrassment and upset.
Her lawyer Mark Lewis told the court: ‘She had not been feeding disinformation or deceit to national newspapers or acting as a police agent. She had not slept with the officer, whom she had married in a Sharia law ceremony, at the defendant’s [Mr Galloway’s] home.’
Adam Speker, for Mr Galloway, said: ‘He now accepts that these [articles] contained defamatory accusations for which through me he apologises.
‘He now withdraws these allegations. He has made payment of damages for his defamatory comments and agreed to pay legal costs.’
Both sides agreed to make no further public statements about each other. The amount of damages was undisclosed but is understood to be a five-figure sum.
Mr Galloway, 61, had won a series of previous libel victories. He won £150,000 in damages from the Daily Telegraph over accusations he was on Saddam Hussein’s payroll and £15,000 from a radio station that claimed he held antiSemitic views.
Miss Ali-Khan said yesterday she was ‘relieved’ her legal battle was over. Her ex-husband, former counter-terrorism officer Mohammed Afiz Khan, did not attend the hearing.
She was given a 12-month conditional discharge in 2014 for encouraging Detective Inspector Khan to obtain emails without consent to bolster her position as Mr Galloway’s assistant. He was sacked by the police and given a suspended jail sentence.
Last year, Miss Ali-Khan complained to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority that she had been expected to buy Mr Galloway’s underwear, make his breakfast and organise his wedding party while she was receiving a parliamentary salary.
He denied her claims and accused her of pursuing a vendetta against him.
‘Seriously injured her reputation’