LONDON: Retired Brigadier Rashid Naseer has secured a landslide win in his high-profile defamation case against Major (R) Adil Raja at the London High Court, according to the judgment.
The UK High Court Judge Richard Spearman KC has ruled that Adil Raja defamed Rashid Naseer, without any factual basis and evidence, made false allegations and therefore, the court has awarded £50,000 in damages to Rashid Naseer — an injunction restraining Adil Raja from repeating his baseless and false allegations ever again. Adil Raja has also been ordered to publish a summary of the judgment confirming that Rashid Naseer has won the case and that the allegations were defamatory. Adil Raja will have to pay the legal costs of Rashid Naseer which have been approved by the court at around £300,000. Brig (R) Rashid Naseer had traveled from Pakistan in July this year to attend the week-long trial in the third week of July 2025. He is in London today as the judgement was announced.
The retired senior intelligence officer commented: “Today, I stand vindicated. After a grueling 3-year high court battle, justice has finally prevailed. Let this serve as a reminder to those who openly lie, spread hate and defame people to create sensationalist drama, that no court in any land will side with you, be it in Pakistan or abroad. I am grateful to London High Court Judge Richard Spearman KC for his verdict. I also wish to thank my Barrister David Lemer, and solicitors, Ushrat Sultana and Sadia Qureshi of Stone White Solicitors, for their hard work and dedication to this case. This victory is not just mine, but a victory for every person who has been maliciously targeted by such characters.”
Rashid Naseer started his defamation claim against Adil Raja in August 2022 over ten publications - published between 14 and 29 June 2022 on Raja’s social media accounts . The court found that nine of these publications were seriously defamatory to Rashid Naseer and caused him serious harm.
The trial focused on the allegations made by Adil Raja against Rashid Naseer; the state of media and politics in Pakistan, Arshad Sharif’s killing, the removal of Imran Khan’s government, ethical and responsible journalism, Pakistan’s establishment and how Rashid Naseer became the focus of Adil Raja’s social media campaign.
Judge Richard Spearman KC noted that Adil Raja produced no contemporary documents whatsoever evidencing either what he was told by his sources, or the steps he took to obtain verification.
The Judge noted that Adil Raja’s three witnesses were articulate and impressive, but stressed that their evidence had zero material value or weight to the case and their arguments did not help to convince the court that Rashid Naseer was involved in the wrongdoings as alleged by Adil Raja.
In fact, the Judge found that while Shaheen Sehbai was critical of Rashid Naseer and made allegations against the working of the ISI and some of the reporting in the international press about the agency, the Judge said that Shaheen Sehbai failed to back up his assertions with any relevant evidence and even if he did so, that would not be relevant to the claim by Rashid Naseer. The Judge wrote: “These views thus have no evidential weight” and “Mr Sehbai’s evidence does not materially assist [Adil Raja]”.
The Judge found that Shaheen Sehbai did not allege “corrupt practices” against Rashid Naseer in his witness statement.
Syed Akbar Hussain told the court that he did not personally know Rashid Naseer and had no knowledge of the allegations made by Adil Raja in the publications.