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Gerry Adams, former leader of Ireland’s Sinn Féin party, has won a high-profile defamation lawsuit against the BBC at the High Court in Dublin after arguing the broadcaster tarnished his reputation as a peacemaker.
The jury in the month-long case on Friday awarded Adams, 76, €100,000 in damages from the British broadcaster over a 2016 documentary and online article that carried allegations he sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, a British MI5 agent, in 2006.
Adams had sought damages of €200,000 and denied all involvement.
It was a stunning victory for the veteran republican, who has always denied being a member of the IRA, which fought to end British rule of Northern Ireland during the three decades-long Troubles, and a blow for the BBC.
“Taking this case was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation,” Adams told reporters outside the court.
He added: “The licence payers are going to pay for this.”
Adams, president of Sinn Féin from 1983 to 2018, helped bring republicans to the Good Friday Agreement peace talks that ended the Troubles in 1998 and remains a highly respected figure in the republican movement.
But he is also widely criticised for his closeness to the IRA, including carrying coffins of paramilitaries at their funerals.
“We are disappointed by this verdict,” said Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, which aired the programme, adding that the verdict “could hinder freedom of expression”.
“We didn’t want to come to court, but it was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision,” he added.
He said the broadcaster would study the ruling carefully. It was not immediately clear if it would appeal — something that would increase the already eye-watering costs, expected to be some £3mn to £5mn. Smyth said the BBC had insurance and made provisions for legal claims.
The BBC had argued that it was not endorsing the allegations aired in the Spotlight programme and accompanying online article, but said their inclusion was fair and reasonable reporting on a matter of public interest.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens, the presiding judge, had asked the jury to consider whether the programme and article meant that Adams sanctioned and approved the killing of Donaldson.
Gregory Campbell, an MP from the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party, told BBC Radio Ulster after the verdict that there had been “a whole series of people who were former members of the IRA who have claimed on-the-record and off-the-record that they served in the Provisional IRA with Gerry Adams . . . are they all liars?”
Adams, sporting a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf under his suit, told reporters he believed there had been “direct political interference in the case”, drawing parallels with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s vow to block payment of compensation to him and other people interned in the 1970s.
A UK government spokesperson did not immediately address Adams’ claim of government interference in the case. But they pointed reporters to Starmer’s comments at Prime Minister’s Questions in January that the 2023 Northern Ireland Troubles Act “was unfit” as it “gave immunity to hundreds of terrorists”, and said the government was working on replacement legislation.
Adams, who was a member of Ireland’s Dáil parliament when the programme was broadcast, described the allegations aired by the BBC as a “grievous smear” and said at the start of the trial he would give any award to “good causes”.
The BBC, which said the allegation was corroborated by various sources, had said the case was a “cynical” attempt to “launder” his reputation.
Donaldson was found murdered in a cottage in County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland in 2006 after being exposed as an MI5 agent and informant for the Northern Ireland police.
The dissident Real IRA said in 2009 it killed him but the Spotlight programme, based on sources, alleged the murder was the work of the Provisional IRA.
