Former Coronation Street actor Qasim Akhtar is to receive “substantial” damages from the Sun’s publisher, to settle a High Court libel claim.
Akhtar who played Zeedan Nazir in the ITV soap from 2014 to 2018 and then 2021 to 2023, sued News Group Newspapers (NGN) earlier this year.
A story in the Sun had falsely alleged Akhtar had “backed” and “teamed up with” Islamic cleric Uthman ibn Farooq, was associated with extremism, radicalisation and violence, and had “moved to Pakistan” and “trained with guns”.
The newspaper previously apologised “unreservedly” to the actor for the “serious harm and distress caused to him by the publication of these false allegations”.
The story, published in November, appeared in The Sun online and in print.
The Manchester-born actor, who has previously appeared in TV shows including Shameless and Waterloo Road, did not attend the court proceedings.
But his lawyer, Daniel Taylor, read out an agreed statement, saying NGN had agreed to pay “substantial damages” and Akhtar’s legal costs.
“The defendant has accepted that the publication of the article caused serious harm to Mr Akhtar’s reputation and also caused him great distress,” he said.
“This included reputational harm to his family life and business, which he was forced to put on hold pending the matter being resolved.
“The libel was compounded by the fact that the defendant has acknowledged that it failed to obtain Mr Akhtar’s response to these very serious allegations prior to publication.”
‘Deeply affected me’
Andrew Wheelhouse, for NGN, responded: “The defendant acknowledges that the article should never have been published and has undertaken never to repeat the allegations.”
In an Instagram post in June, Mr Akhtar said that the previous six months had been “very tough to say the least” and that the allegations in the article “deeply affected me, my reputation, my family, my safety and my peace of mind”.
In its apology published in May, The Sun said it accepted that the allegations in the article were “entirely false”.
It said: “Mr Akhtar has never endorsed or supported any such views and strongly condemns all forms of extremism and violence.
“He has never been involved in or associated with radicalisation nor has he, as further falsely claimed, moved to Pakistan and undertaken firearms training.”
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