Nadine Osman
A leading Muslim charity and its chair have won a second libel victory in the courts after being falsely accused of colluding with people smugglers.
The Daily Mail online MailOnline unreservedly apologised to Imam Qasim and the Al-Khair Foundation and agreed to pay substantial damages as well as their legal costs.
The MailOnline published an article accusing the charity of working with people smugglers in Greece, following up a story The Times published with false information in December 2020.
The article suggested that Al-Khair was to be suspected of colluding with human traffickers bringing migrants to Europe and included details of an incident that led to the deaths of Somali refugees in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Daily Mail withdrew the article and accepted it was both defamatory and untrue, and published an unreserved apology to Imam Qasim and Al-Khair on its website on July 6.
The newspaper also agreed to pay £15,000 damages in addition to their legal costs. The Times previously paid £50,000 in damages that have also gone to support Al Khair Foundation charitable projects.
The apology from MailOnline reads: “An article on 10 December 2020 reported claims in The Times that the UK-based charity Al-Khair
Foundation had been accused by the Greek authorities of funding human trafficking gangs smuggling Somali migrants into Europe via Greece. We have since been informed and accept that the allegations were untrue, as has The Times, and apologise to the Al-Khair Foundation and its founding trustee, Imam Qasim.”