LONDON: Britain’s main newspaper The Telegraph has issued an unprecedented collection of apologies and paid damages to Pakistani-American expertise entrepreneur Zia Chishti for publishing allegations that he had engaged in sexual misconduct.
Chishti had sued the Telegraph Media Group (writer of the Day by day Telegraph and the Telegraph on-line) on the UK Excessive Court docket over 13 articles printed by The Telegraph between November 2021 to February 2023 that republished allegations made by a former worker that he had harassed and assaulted Tatiana Spottiswoode.
Chishti, whose full identify is Muhammad Ziaullah Khan Chishti, fought a tricky authorized battle with the paper in London for over two years which concerned the disclosure and overview of hundreds of paperwork between Chishti and Spottiswoode.
Between November 2021 and February 2023, The Telegraph printed a collection of articles that reported on allegations made by Spottiswoode to a committee of the USA Congress. Chishti initiated libel proceedings in opposition to The Telegraph in response.
The following Excessive Court docket proceedings drew on in depth private communications between Chishti and Spottiswoode, in addition to lots of of paperwork The Telegraph obtained by way of a subpoena of Ms Spottiswoode’s attorneys in the USA.
The communications included textual content messages by which Spottiswoode seemed to be asking that she be “seduced” by Chishti in the course of the interval by which she claimed she was being harassed. The paperwork contained intimate conversations which purportedly confirmed that Spottiswoode repeatedly pursued Chishti with romantic curiosity in the course of the intervals by which she was claiming she was harassed and assaulted — and made her allegations public after Chishti had moved on to a distinct relationship and married his now-wife.
The UK’s oldest newspaper has now conceded the allegations it printed have been false, deceptive and defamatory. The apology states that The Telegraph withdraws its place that its allegations in opposition to Chishti have been true and can run the apology on high of a file 13 separate articles that The Telegraph printed about him.
It’s going to even be printed individually each in The Telegraph’s print and on-line editions. The Telegraph additionally agreed to pay Chishti substantial damages and authorized prices.
The Telegraph acknowledged that Chishti has persistently disputed the allegations Spottiswoode made to the US Congress, which supplied her with authorized immunity in opposition to claims of defamation. The Telegraph additionally acknowledged that, though he sought to supply proof to Congress to disprove the allegations made in opposition to him, Congress didn’t give Chishti the chance to take action.
The Telegraph at present learn out in open courtroom within the Royal Courts of Justice in London that: “A collection of articles printed by The Telegraph from November 2021 to February 2023 reported on allegations made by a former worker of Afiniti, Tatiana Spottiswoode to the USA Congress, in regards to the firm’s founder and CEO, Zia Chishti. Though Chishti sought to take action, Congress didn’t give him the chance to refute the allegations, which he strongly disputes.”
“The Telegraph made an announcement in open courtroom that it withdraws its earlier place that the above allegations have been true and that they have been made within the public curiosity. The Telegraph apologises to Chishti and his household for the hurt they’ve been brought about. Lastly, The Telegraph has agreed to pay Chishti a considerable sum by means of damages and a contribution to his authorized prices,” it added.
Chatting with media outdoors the courtroom after successful the case, Zia Chishti mentioned The Telegraph apology and settlement is a step in the correct path.
The expertise entrepreneur, accompanied by his members of the family and legal professionals, mentioned: “I didn’t commit the horrific acts Spottiswoode and The Telegraph alleged in opposition to me. These allegations have created a three-and-a-half-year ordeal that has critically harm my household and severely broken my status and enterprise pursuits. The Telegraph has now withdrawn its place that the allegations it printed have been true and has apologised for the hurt it has brought about in publishing these allegations. This apology helps restore the in depth injury to me in the UK. I’m now hopeful that in the USA the newly elected Congress offers me the identical platform to disclaim the allegations in opposition to me because it gave my accuser to make the allegations.”
Famend authorized skilled Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Regulation, Emeritus at Harvard Regulation Faculty commented: “Chishti’s settlement with The Telegraph additional cements his place that the allegations in opposition to him are simply that: allegations. I’ve suggested Chishti and adopted his case with curiosity.
“Final 12 months, Chishti gained the biggest defamation award in Pakistani historical past after equally difficult allegations associated to Spottiswoode printed by the Narratives Journal. With The Telegraph now withdrawing its defence of fact, it’s more and more clear that many in politics, enterprise and the press rushed to guage Chishti merely on the allegations levelled in opposition to him, with out giving him any alternative to determine his innocence,” he mentioned.
He added, “The Judiciary Committee of the USA Home of Representatives, for instance, allowed his accuser a nationwide stage to degree her accusations with out offering any alternative to Mr Chishti for rebuttal. Such conduct is an unlucky function of the current local weather by which the rules of justice on which all nations are ruled by the rule of regulation — due course of and a robust presumption of innocence — have taken a again seat to virtue-signalling and ‘at all times imagine the alleged sufferer’ pondering. By bringing authorized proceedings, Chishti has bravely cleared his identify and has helped transfer society in direction of a greater steadiness between the rights of the accuser and the accused.”
Chishti’s counsel in his US defamation case in opposition to Spottiswoode and her attorneys Nancy Smith and Michael Zweig is Ben Chew, who additionally represented Hollywood actor Johnny Depp in his landmark trial in opposition to his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Ben Chew acknowledged, “The Telegraph, one of many newspapers of file in the UK, has deserted its protection of fact as to the Spottiswoode allegations and has now apologized to Chishti in open courtroom. Following his decisive victory in the same defamation case in Pakistan, the place he obtained a file judgment, this constitutes additional vindication for Chishti.”
Chishti’s solicitor within the UK representing him in opposition to The Telegraph is Jayne Clemens of Michelmores, and his barristers have been Adrienne Web page KC and Jacob Dean KC of 5RB. Clemens commented: “Following two years of litigation incorporating in depth underlying proof, Chishti has been vindicated by this apology for the hurt brought about to him and his household by the significantly defamatory allegations made in opposition to him.”
The scope and distribution of The Telegraph’s apology is unprecedented within the British press, signifying the severity of The Telegraph’s mistake. The Telegraph has additionally agreed that the printed apology will stay obtainable eternally on the paper’s web site and not using a paywall. The apology will even be obtainable on high of every of the 13 articles it printed on Zia Chishti and Tatiana Spottiswoode. The apology declares that the allegations may now not be supported as being true or being within the public curiosity.
Authorized specialists say that the Telegraph was dealing with doubtlessly extraordinary damages in courtroom for its extreme defamations of Chishti. The Telegraph had earlier suffered a setback in June 2023 when the paper misplaced an preliminary trial when Justice Susan Collins Rice decided that the allegations made by the paper carried factual imputation and have been plainly defamatory of Chishti.
Discovering in opposition to The Telegraph’s argument that it was merely reporting what Spottiswoode alleged and no additional, Justice Rice concluded that The Telegraph’s reporting was not balanced and that it created a definite impression of “the place there’s smoke there’s hearth.” Justice Rice declared that The Telegraphs’ allegations have been “Chase Stage 1”, or essentially the most excessive doable. The Telegraph continued to battle for almost a 12 months and at last agreed to settle just a few weeks earlier than trial.
Chishti has additionally sued Spottiswoode and her attorneys Nancy Smith and Michael Zweig for defamation in the USA. In his US criticism, Chishti additionally included in depth textual content and electronic mail conversations with Spottiswoode that purportedly present that Spottiswoode had lied to the USA Congress and that the 2 had a consensual romantic relationship unfold over a few years. A central a part of Spottiswoode’s defence is that as a result of her allegations in opposition to Chishti have been made to the US Congress, she has authorized immunity in opposition to Chishti’s defamation lawsuit.
Zia Chishti was the founding father of Invisalign, which he led to a public itemizing on the NASDAQ in 2001; of The Useful resource Group, which he led to a public itemizing on the Pakistan Inventory Alternate in 2003; and of Afiniti Restricted.
On the time he resigned from his positions in The Useful resource Group and at Afiniti, he led a enterprise group that employed hundreds of individuals worldwide. The companies continued to thrive for six or so months after Chishti departed. Nonetheless, three years after he left, Afiniti entered into insolvency and The Useful resource Group inventory worth has plummeted to Rs60 from round Rs150.