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Blow to libel tourism as court throws out claims of corruption and crime in Eastern Europe because judges believed they had little connection to Britain

Daily Mail

The trend for foreigners to have libel disputes settled in Britain could soon be a thing of the past following a landmark High Court decision.

Britain is a popular destination for so-called libel tourism because complainants believe they have more chance of winning a case in our legal system.

But yesterday, two libel cases involving allegations of corruption and crime in Eastern Europe were thrown out by judges because they were deemed to have little connection to Britain.

The decisions were hailed as a victory against libel tourism, which has become an embarrassment to Britain after a number of US states introduced laws enabling their courts to refuse to enforce defamation judgements handed down here.

One of the two cases was brought by a former Moscow policeman against City fund chief William Browder, chief executive of Hermitage Capital Management, who said he had covered up a £150million fraud by causing the torture and murder of a prisoner.

But Mr Justice Simon said that the policeman, Paul Karpov, had no established reputation in Britain and so could not have suffered harm from the allegations. ‘The connection with this country is limited to the presence of some of the parties and it being the place where some of the defamatory material was, and continues to be, published,’ he said.