A PALESTINIAN politician who brought a defamation claim against London-based publication Middle East Eye is set to pursue his claims against Facebook in Ireland to prevent the alleged continuing spread of fake news about his activities.
Mohammed Dahlan, who was represented by Belfast-based solicitor Paul Tweed, discontinued on Monday his case in the High Court in London against Middle East Eye.
The claim had been commenced on the grounds that it published an article falsely claiming that he was secretly involved in funding the unsuccessful military coup in Turkey in July 2016 and that the article made false claims about his activities in Libya and contained a false claim that he had been exiled from the UAE.
But it has emerged that Mr Dahlan will continue vigorously to pursue his legal action against Facebook in the High Court in Dublin for facilitating the further and more extensive international dissemination of false allegations and for inaccurately disseminating his data.
Libel law expert Mr Tweed, who has previously represented Hollywood stars like Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake and Liam Neeson, said: “The defamation claim he brought againstMiddle East Eye has concluded after Mr Dahlan achieved his objectives. He had decided not to continue with the claim and is satisfied with the outcome.
“But he is continuing to pursue his claims against Facebook in Ireland to prevent the continuing spread of fake news about his activities.
“Middle East Eye never tried to verify any of these claims by contacting Mohammed Dahlan. In the legal action it did not seek to defend any of the claims as being true. It admitted that the claims were based on information provided by a primary unidentified source in the Turkish Intelligence Services.”
