UK Pays $285,000 In Libel Damages To Muslim Community Leader Over False Allegations

The British government has issued an unreserved apology and paid £225,000 ($285,000) in libel damages to Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin.

The Muslim community leader, who has lived in the UK since 1973 and been a British citizen since 1984, was falsely accused of being involved in war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Independence.

A report by Middle East Monitor said the payout is believed to be the largest libel payment ever made by a British government department to one of its citizens.

In a rare and high-profile public apology delivered at the High Court in London on 25 November 2025, the Home Secretary and the Home Office admitted to having published unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations against Mueen-Uddin in an official government report.

The false allegations were included in a 2019 publication titled “Challenging Hateful Extremism”, issued by the Commission for Countering Extremism, a non-statutory body operating under the Home Office. The report referenced a 2013 conviction in absentia issued by Bangladesh’s widely condemned International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), claiming Mueen-Uddin had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment in 2024, declared that the UK government had no basis to make such claims, given that the Bangladeshi tribunal failed to meet even the most basic standards of a fair trial.

Mueen-Uddin had never been given the chance to defend himself, and international observers described the proceedings as politically motivated and devoid of procedural justice.

A press statement by the lawyers of Mueen-Uddin cited the judgment of the President of the Supreme Court. Judging in Mr Mueen-Uddin’s favour in 2024, the Supreme Court said: “it is difficult to imagine a graver allegation than guilt of war crimes and crimes against humanity”, and that “the allegation is especially grave when it is made by the government of this country against one of its own citizens”.

Despite initial demands for redress in 2019, the Home Office refused to apologise and attempted to have the claim struck out, dragging the matter through nearly six years of litigation. It was only after the Supreme Court’s decisive ruling that the government issued an unqualified offer of amends and removed the allegations from its official platforms.

In open court, the Home Office acknowledged the distress caused not only by the publication but also by the prolonged legal battle. The government also agreed to pay all legal costs incurred by Mueen-Uddin in the process.

The case has raised concerns about state-led defamation, Islamophobia in counter-extremism policy, and the accountability of government institutions when publishing unverified allegations.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Mueen-Uddin said: “I am delighted by this outcome. I had hoped that, faced with my clear position that these allegations against me were completely untrue, and with the fact that the Tribunal which had resulted in my ‘conviction’ in 2013 was wholly discredited and universally condemned, the then Home Secretary and Home Office would quickly recognise its error and apologise.”

“It has been at times a dispiriting and distressing journey for me on the road to securing justice in this matter. However, I am very pleased that my trust in the English legal and Court system, and indeed in the government which presides over all of us in this country which I am proud to call my home, has been vindicated.” (Middle East Monitor)