A man is suing The Guardian for libel, claiming he was forced to go into hiding from the Taliban after his photo was mistakenly used in an article about a murdered gay Afghan student.
Safiullah Ahmadi is seeking damages exceeding £100,000 over the article published in October 2022, headlined: "Gay Afghan student 'murdered by Taliban' as anti-LGBTQ+ violence rises".
The article concerned the killing of Hamed Sabouri in Kabul, but Ahmadi claims the image originally posted with the story was of him.
The High Court heard that Ahmadi was "forced to go into hiding" in Afghanistan due to "extremist and homophobic views that are prevalent" in Iranian and Afghan communities.
The image was removed around 12 hours after the article was published, the court heard
PAHis lawyers told the court that the publication made him the "object of ridicule".
Muhammad Zahab Jamali, representing Ahmadi, said: "Whilst the defendant's published story was regarding Mr Hamed Sabouri, the photograph published with the article was that of the claimant who is neither gay, nor does he have any connections with the gay community."
The image was removed around 12 hours after the article was published, the court heard.
Ahmadi's legal team said he "has been unable to study or undertake work due to a fear for his life in the Taliban regime, and the perception he is a gay man arising from this publication."
The court was told that Ahmadi returned to Afghanistan in March 2023, where he went into hiding and remains so.
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The High Court heard that Ahmadi was 'forced to go into hiding' in Afghanistan due to 'extremist and homophobic views that are prevalent' in Iranian and Afghan communities
Wikimedia CommonsNo complaint was received by The Guardian until September 2023, according to the publisher's lawyers.
When asked by the judge about how the "mistake happened", Ben Silverstone, for the publisher, replied: "It was clearly an error and it was taken down very swiftly."
Guardian News & Media has applied for the claim to be thrown out, with its lawyers stating the article is not defamatory and the claim is "bound to fail".
Silverstone argued that a statement suggesting someone is homosexual could not have a defamatory meaning, and therefore Ahmadi could not suffer "serious harm" to his reputation in England and Wales.
He told the court the article "is plainly not of and concerning" Ahmadi.
"The claimant is not called Hamed Sabouri, is not dead, is not gay, is not a medical student," Silverstone said.
He added: "No reasonable reader would assume that those references were in fact meant to be about someone else with a completely different name."
Silverstone also noted the image was a "handout", indicating "a more informal provenance".
Justice Johnson will hand down his judgment at a later date.
