Sunday Times pays damages to immigration lawyer

The Sunday Times has paid £20,000 in damages plus legal costs to a solicitor it claimed had helped an undercover reporter obtain an illegal passport. The paper published an article in February which alleged that Dr Akbar Malik, an east London lawyer, had advised a Sunday Times reporter on how to obtain a passport by entering into a sham civil partnership. The paper carried an apology to him on Sunday. Malik has written a book on British immigration law which receives lavish praise from Mazher Mahmood, the investigations editor of the News of the World on the Malik law firm's website. (Via media.theguardian.com)