Former Irish republican leader Gerry Adams won a libel case against the BBC on Friday and was awarded 100,000 euros ($113,000) in damages over a report containing allegations he was involved in killing a British spy.

The BBC Northern Ireland "Spotlight" investigation included an anonymous allegation that Adams gave final approval for the 2006 murder of Denis Donaldson, a former official in the pro-Irish unity Sinn Fein party Adams once led.

A jury in Dublin ruled that the 2016 programme containing the allegation was libellous.

Speaking outside court, Adams, 76, said the case was "about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation".

ADVERTISEMENT

His solicitors said Adams was "very pleased with this resounding verdict".

The former republican leader had said earlier he would give any damages to "good causes" if he won.

At a press conference in 2005, Adams revealed that Donaldson spied for the British intelligence agency MI5.

The 55-year-old Donaldson, who later acknowledged working as a police and British agent, was found shot dead months later in County Donegal, where he lived close to the Northern Ireland border.

More than 3,600 people were killed during Northern Ireland's sectarian conflict known as the Troubles, which largely ended after a 1998 peace accord.

In 2009, a dissident Irish republican paramilitary group called the Real IRA claimed responsibility for Donaldson's murder.

The BBC programme claimed the killing was in fact the work of the Provisional IRA, and featured an anonymous testimony alleging that the murder was approved by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Adams "gives the final say".

ADVERTISEMENT

The BBC argued that it acted in "good faith", that its programme was "fair and reasonable" and in the public interest, and that the allegation was supported by five other sources.

BBC Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth told reporters outside court that "we are disappointed by this verdict".

Adams brought the case in Dublin as the Spotlight programme could be watched in Ireland, where it was seen by about 16,000 people.

An online article also had around 700 hits in Ireland during a 14-month period after its publication in September 2016.

- 'Grievous smear' -

The jury was asked to decide whether the words in the documentary and the online article could be taken to mean that Adams had sanctioned and approved Donaldson's murder.

The BBC argued that the words were presented as allegations while Adams' side claimed the accusations were put forward as fact and were a "grievous smear" and defamatory.

ADVERTISEMENT

Adams also argued that the BBC broke its reporting rules and that he suffered "an unjustified attack" by the broadcaster.

After the verdict, Adams told reporters he believed the BBC "was out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement" of 1998 that ended the conflict.

The BBC "hasn't caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully... unity".

The case at Dublin's High Court lasted four weeks and included 15 days of evidence from 10 witnesses, including Adams and BBC reporter Jennifer O'Leary.

The BBC's Smyth said the broadcaster had provided "extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this programme".

ADVERTISEMENT

He also warned that the ruling had "profound" implications, saying "if the BBC's case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyone's could".

Adams became president of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing during the Troubles, in 1983 and served as MP from 1983 to 1992, and again from 1997 to 2011 before sitting in the Irish parliament between 2011 and 2020.

He stepped down as leader of Sinn Fein in 2018, and has always denied being a member of the IRA.

pmu-aks/jkb/js