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Galloway appeals for libel battle donations Kevin Maguire Wednesday April 30, 2003 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,946267,00.html George Galloway yesterday launched an appeal to fund his high court libel battle against two newspapers that claimed he received money from Saddam Hussein's regime. The Labour MP urged supporters and sympathisers to back his court action against the Daily Telegraph and the Christian Science Monitor over their allegations, which were based on documents purportedly written by the Iraqi security service. Mr Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, vehemently denies the claims. He said he "didn't have any choice" but to sue if he was to clear his name, but he was unable personally to finance a defamation case that could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. "I expect we will raise a significant fund and we will need it, because it is a daunting undertaking, as I have discovered all over again," he said. The "George Galloway Legal Fund" will be administered by his London-based solicitors, Davenport Lyons. Donors have been promised their cash back if he wins, or a proportion if an award fails to cover legal costs. Supporters believe that the attempts by Mr Galloway's critics to use the documents naming him to discredit the anti-war movement will help to secure donations. Mr Galloway said he had received many letters and telephone calls pledging support, from members of the public as well as his parliamentary colleagues and the former Labour leader Michael Foot. The MP, who earns about £70,000 a year as a columnist for the Mail on Sunday as well as his £55,000 parliamentary salary, is estimated to have won more than £200,000 from previous libel cases. He issued a statement last week denying allegations that he was wealthy, saying that he had a £290,000 mortgage on his London home and a £76,000 mortgage on his Portuguese holiday home. He is awaiting an independent translation of the Arabic files the Daily Telegraph said it found in a bombed Baghdad building, which allegedly show he received up to £375,000 a year from the Iraqi regime. The money was allegedly siphoned off through the UN oil-for-food programme to pay Mr Galloway, a regular visitor to Baghdad and campaigner against sanctions on Iraq. He is also suing the Christian Science Monitor in London, after the US paper published further accusations based on documents he insists were forged. As well as the libel battle and an internal Labour party investigation, he is threatened with a parliamentary inquiry after a Tory MP lodged an official complaint to Sir Philip Mawer, the House of Commons standards commissioner. Andrew Robathan, MP for Blaby, Leicestershire, said it would be "extraordinary" if Sir Philip did not examine the allegations made last week, when parliament was not sitting. Sir Philip's spokeswoman said it was "impossible" to say when the commissioner would decide whether or not to act. Mr Robathan said: "An MP is alleged to have been in the pay of a foreign dictator when we were awaiting war with them. It is vital that parliament look at this." The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, is also considering whether to investigate the running of the Mariam Appeal, which was founded by Mr Galloway to treat a young Iraqi leukaemia sufferer but later transformed into an anti-sanctions campaign. It received £1m over four years, including £500,000 from the United Arab Emirates and £100,000 from Saudi Arabia, with most of the rest coming from a Jordanian businessman, Fawaz Zureikat. Mr Zureikat, who chaired the Mariam Appeal, was said by the Mail on Sunday at the weekend to have admitted profiting from the UN oil-for-food programme. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk