Galloway rocked by Saddam claim

Rebel MP George Galloway was "squashed completely flat" by a newspaper claim that he was paid thousands of pounds by Saddam Hussein's regime, the High Court heard today.

The allegation was like a rock " propelled downhill onto Mr Galloway's head", the court was told.

Mr Galloway had met Saddam 10 years ago and was reported as praising the tyrant's personal courage - a claim which had severely embarrassed the MP.

But his barrister Richard Rampton QC, told the court that he had been "a long-standing opponent of Saddam".

Even when western governments were "in great good friendship" with the Iraqi dictator, Mr Galloway had been "entirely consistent" about his total opposition.

Yet days after the fall of Baghdad in April last year, the Daily Telegraph found documents in the ruins of the

Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad detailing connections between Mr Galloway and Iraqi intelligence, the court heard.

When the newspaper translated and published the documents, Mr Galloway sued for libel.

The Left-winger, who was thrown out of the Labour Party earlier this year over his criticism of the invasion of Iraq, is not disputing that the documents found by the

Daily Telegraph were genuine.

But he objects to the interpretation the newspaper placed on them and claims he was not given sufficient time to answer the allegations.

Opening his case before Mr Justice Eady, Mr Rampton said of the MP: "He has been a long standing opponent of tyranny and oppression and one of his targets dating from the 1970s was the tyrannical regime of Saddam and his cronies in Iraq."

After the first Gulf War, Mr Galloway established the Mariam Appeal to bring an Iraqi child suffering from leukaemia out of Baghdad for treatment in a Glasgow hospital and to draw attention-to the plight of the Iraqi people-suffering under UN sanctions. On behalf of the campaign he met Saddam twice, said Mr Rampton. "On the first occasion, in 1994

... Mr Galloway admits he put his foot in his mouth by making some remarks which were interpreted as some kind of fawning praise for Saddam's personal courage and strength," said the QC.

"It was not what he meant to say

... because he had no admiration for Saddam whatsoever, but that was how it came out in the press."

Among documents found in Baghdad after the second Gulf War, was a letter signed by Mr Galloway certifying that his representative in Baghdad on mattersinvolving the appeal and antiwar-campaign was Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman awarded contracts by Saddam Hussein.

Mr Galloway was confronted with the document in a phone call by Daily Telegraph political journalist Andrew Sparrow.

Mr Sparrow said the documents raised serious questions about links between the MP, the Mariam Appeal and Saddam's regime.

Mr Galloway insisted he had never knowingly met any member of the Iraqi intelligence and the only thing that was true was his contact with Mr Zureikat.

The case continues.