28 March, 2024

Blog

Asian Tribune Found Guilty For Defamation In Sweden

By Colombo Telegraph

KT Rajasingham

The Court of Appeal found that the Asian Tribune Editor KT Rajasingham and the World Institute for Asian Studies are liable for gross defamation of NORWAY NEWS journalist Nadarajah Sethurupan through the articles published on the Asian Tribune website. The Court of Appeal upheld the District Court’s decision to order Rajasingham and the World Institute for Asian Studies Institute to pay to NORWAY NEWS journalist Nadarajah Sethurupan SEK 125,000 (about USD 20,000) plus interest from 2 November 2005.

Swedish Svea Court of Appeal today gave its judgment in the case between Sethurupan and Rajasingham and the World Institute for Asian Studies.

According to the documents submitted to the courts, the World Institute for Asian Studies Institute runs by following individuals; K.T Rajasingham – Chairman and Chief Executive, R. Tharshany – Secretary, V. Rajeny – Treasurer, d Ekemini Ebiwok – Committee member and the committee co-opted the following members as the committee members; H.L.D. Mahindapala – Melbourne Australia, T. Sritaharan – Massachusetts and Daya Gamage – Nevada USA. Other members of the organisation are Guy Gallahan, Ms. R. Tharany, N. Kodituwaku, Ms Tharshany R., Mrs NAgaledchumy Rajasingham, Piratheepan Rajalingam, Philip Fernando, Summane Liyanarachchi and Leel Pathirana.

Talking to the Colombo Telegraph Nadarajah Sethurupan said “When I was in Oslo 2003/2004, Mr.KT.rajasingahm called me and asked me to work with his secrete network to attack Norwegian peace process in Sri Lanka, He asked me to write against to Norwegian Official and SLMM and their peace effort in Sri Lanka. He asked me to work together with him and his hidden unit to attack Norwegian involvement in Sri Lanka. I refused all that then he and his hidden group branded me as a “terrorist” and started attacking me on media as a member of LTTE from 2005 till 2008.”

Nadarajah Sethurupan

“I sent many email and asked him to stop writing against to me but not stopped. each and every time I made complaint to UK, Norway, Sweden, Police and Intelligence service and then took legal action to safer my life from this dangerous game.” he further said.

The Court of Appeal  also  confirmed that Nadarajah Sethurupan is entitled to compensation for financial losses incurred as a result of the gross defamation in an amount to be determined later.

The Court of Appeal ordered Asian Tribune Editor KT Rajasingham and the World Institute for Asian Studies to pay for the costs for translating the judgements by the Court of Appeal and of the District Court (comprising 10 and 22 pages respectively) into English and for the costs for publishing such authorized translations of the judgments in a Sri Lankan newspaper with nation-wide distribution.

The Court of Appeal did not uphold the District Court’s decision to order Rajasingham and the World Institute for Asian Studies to publish a web-link to the judgment and a translation thereof into English on the front page of the Asian Tribune website. According to the Court of Appeal there is no statutory basis for such an order under Swedish law in this case.

The Court of Appeal ordered Rajasingham and the World Institute for Asian Studies to compensate the Swedish state and Sethurupan for their litigation costs.

Lawyer in Sweden Mr.Niclas Carlsson appeared on behalf of journalist Nadarajah Sethurupan. According to him this is the highest Court sentence for defamation in Swedish history. In previous Swedish defamation cases no more than SEK 100,000 have been granted. The Swedish Supreme Court granted that amount in a landmark case to a previous Swedish prime minister and other well known Swedish people who had been portrayed as being promiscuous in a magazine. The Swedish district and appeal courts have before the Asian Tribune case not exceeded the amount granted by the Swedish Supreme Court in that case.

The Court of Appeal’s judgment may be appealed to the Swedish Supreme Court no later than 23 March 2012.

The Judgement;

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Latest comments

  • 0
    0

    wtf? I’m confuse now.

  • 0
    0

    Good work sethu,

  • 0
    0

    It is about time Rajasingham is penalised. He asked me to support Karuna around 2004 and I declined. Asian Tribune is a disgrace to honest journalism.

  • 0
    0

    Since the Sri Lankan state financially supports the Asian Tribune and places articles in it and pretends they are independent, they will have to pick up this bill as well?

  • 0
    0

    The Asian Tribune at its best, had no standards and was but a slander machine. Its politics remain unacceptable to me personally, yet if it had good honest analysis and accurate reporting of incidents and situations, people could have appreciated it for content. But how it is funded, its open leanings towards the government has discredited it, its raison d’etre from the first day. The legal wrong doing comes naturally to hate speech practitioners like Rajaratnam and the clan. It is to be expected.

  • 0
    0

    It was reported that KTRajasingham advised sending Karuna to UK when the latter became an embarassment to the government of sri lanka,after he was brought to colombo from batticaloa by Ali Sahir Moulana (then MP) and handed over to the army.
    Karuna was provided a bogus passport by Gotabaya (according to Karuna) and when he entered UK this was detected and Karuna was indicted & imprisoned.
    To cover this up, most probably, Karuna was made a ‘puppet’ minister and a Vice President of SLFP.
    Rajasingham has been publishing fanciful stories in Asian Tribue.

  • 0
    0

    So CT realize that my reply is not up to standard and removes it.You talk about moderators.That’s a big joke.You allow Tamil tiger terrorists to insult president Rajapakse, who was elected by the people calling him all sorts of names including murderer,crook etc.Yes according to Tamil terrorists he is a murderer.CT is trying in vain to make it look like a neutral website.What i said was that Swedish justice is not justice.A case in point is the bogus case against Jullian Assange.CT don’t fall in to the category of Tamilnet.We wish to see CT continuing at least in Srilanka.CT should be thankful to the Srilankan justice system,up to now your website has been allowed freely to insult the Sinhala people.You do that in a country like Sweden,better ask Asian Tribune regarding consequences..CT don’t act like nuns in a convent.Put your own house in order.The LTTE never understood in putting it’s own house in order.CT don’t play god.Prabakaran also played the role of sun god.In the end the monster got what he deserved.

    • 0
      0

      Dear Max, The issue with your earlier comment, which we removed was, you wanted to publish unsubstantiated allegations against Swedish judges. If you have any evidence regarding the claim you still can do it. Re. the case against Julian we have to wait and see. It is too early to comment.

    • 0
      0

      Max, CT is the voice of Tamil LTTE Eelam Diaspora. Don’t be surprised.

    • 0
      0

      I am fully with you max. I think only the Asian Tribune was there to counter loads and loads of false propaganda by LTTE. even on the site anyone can see the number of LTTE sites that are there to turn round the views and there is a story that when you tell a lie a thousand times people begin to see that it is the truth. thats what is happening here. Thats why they attack Asian Tribune having connections with the GOSL and so many other things. Just see how many say that, and it is for what I had said, tell a lie a thousand times to make it look as truth.

  • 0
    0

    sethu will be the next leader to Tamil, He is the only one Tamil man in the world taken this DIKTETERs to Court.

  • 0
    0

    I’m so pleased AT and KTR got their due rewards. Only $20,000?
    KTR is a vile character: [Edited out]

    Sethurupan is not exactly whiter than white.

    Max- Calm down- take a chill pill..its only a blog

    Thank you CT keeping us updated and having a watchful eye.

  • 0
    0

    If Swedish judges and their European counterparts are fair,why allow Tiger terrorists to roam about free in their territory?.Adle Balasingham trained child soldiers.But no one bothers to charge her with war crimes.Juliane Assange was fixed with a bogus rape charge.Then these Scandinavian countries insulted Prophet Mohamed with slanderous cartoons.No problem there.Swedish judges are not gods.It’s all politics at the end of the day,ask Jullian Assange!

  • 0
    0

    What happened to the defamation case against Asian Tribune threatened by Sarath Fonseka’s son-in-law? The Tribune ran a series of articles accusing Fonseka of being a serial sex offender and rapist.

    http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/01/25/corruption-tainted-general%E2%80%99s-erection-problem-will-have-him-grounded.

    Even the Sunday Leader, which supported Fonseka during the presidential election took up this theme in its February 14 2010 edition. Faraz Shauketaly wrote: ” What thoughts did Somawansa Amarasinghe have for the female victim during the time in the mid 1970’s when Sarath Fonseka was charged for conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, in charge number 0/050/536? It is said that the victim to-date suffers acute mental trauma caused by that incident. Her suffering continues to this date despite those events taking place on Christmas Day 1975.” The charge sheet referred to concerned the rape of a domestic worker on 25 December 1975, at the Army Training centre in Diayatalawa. According to the Asian Tribune, Fonseka was ‘Severely Reprimanded’ by Colonel S.C. Ranatunga.

    Another bizarre example of the Leader’s complex relationship with the General.

  • 0
    0

    This website is more like Tamil net.The good and innocent guys are the LTTE and it’s supporters and the bad guys are GOSL and it’s supporters.Where in the world do you come across unbiased media?Anyone care to mention one!

Leave A Comment

Comments should not exceed 200 words. Embedding external links and writing in capital letters are discouraged. Commenting is automatically disabled after 5 days and approval may take up to 24 hours. Please read our Comments Policy for further details. Your email address will not be published.