Sheikh Nasser: we apologise for publication of defamatory allegations

We published an article on 18 April 2016 under the heading “Queen's birthday: the seven dictators and leaders with poor human rights records greeted by Elizabeth II” which wrongly stated that His Highness Sheikh Nasser al Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah was one of the world's most feared dictators and a leader with a poor human rights record, that he was associated with or personally responsible for numerous and consistent human rights abuses, that he is comparable to dictators like Robert Mugabe and that he was therefore not an appropriate or acceptable individual for the Queen to have met. Our article was not only wrong but was grossly defamatory of His Highness Sheikh Nasser and caused serious damage to his reputation by purporting to doubt his integrity and his respect for human rights.

We realised we had made an error on 19 April 2016 and that we had intended to refer to an unrelated third party, not Sheikh Nasser who had been the Prime Minister of Kuwait. We therefore amended the article on 19 April 2016. We recognise that there was no foundation to these allegations either in the original form of the article as published or the amended form and we sincerely regret that these allegations were ever made and that Sheikh Nasser was mentioned in the article/ an article of this nature. We apologise unreservedly to Sheikh Nasser.

We have now amended the article to remove all references to Sheikh Nasser and to ensure that syndicated copies of the article are corrected to remove the same. We greatly regret any damage and embarrassment caused to Sheikh Nasser’s reputation by the publication of the article and we are glad to have this opportunity to correct the record and to apologise to His Highness Sheikh Nasser.