The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has refused permission for appeal in a libel case brought by former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer Rashid Naseer against former Pakistan Army major-turned-blogger Adil Raja, leaving in place a damages award of £50,000 and an injunction issued by the High Court.

 

According to an order dated March 3, Lord Justice Warby dismissed Raja’s applications seeking to challenge a 2025 High Court judgement that held him liable for defamatory posts published on social media in June 2022.

 

The case centres on nine posts in which Raja accused Naseer of involvement in election rigging, fraud, bribery, corruption and abuse of power.

 

During the trial held in July 2025, the High Court considered whether the social media posts had caused “serious harm” to Naseer’s reputation under Section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013. The court also reviewed whether Raja’s claims could be protected under the public interest defence provided under Section 4 of the same law.

 

In a reserved judgement issued on October 9 last year, the trial judge concluded that the requirement of serious harm had been met.

 

The court subsequently ordered Raja to pay £50,000 in damages to Naseer. It also issued an injunction preventing him from repeating the allegations and directed that a summary of the judgement be published.

 

Raja later sought permission to appeal the decision before the Court of Appeal. However, in the March 3 order, Lord Justice Warby rejected the applications and declined to grant permission to challenge the High Court ruling.

 

With the refusal of permission to appeal, the earlier judgement awarding damages, issuing an injunction against further publication of the allegations, and requiring publication of a summary of the ruling remains in effect.