In Hegab v The Spectator (1828) Ltd & Anor [2025] EWHC 2043 (KB), Mr Hegab sought damages in libel and under the Data Protection Act 2018 in respect of an article written by the second defendant, Mr Murray, and published in The Spectator. The article said that Mr Hegab was a street agitator who had whipped up his followers and made disparaging comments about Hindus in the context of disturbances between local Muslims and Hindus.

An important part of Mr Murray’s basis for his article was a video of a speech given by Mr Hegab in Leicester to a large group of (largely masked) men, during which he had said,

“if they believe in reincarnation … what a humiliation and pathetic thing for them to be reincarnated into some pathetic weak cowardly people like that. I’d rather be an animal. I’d rather be reincarnated as a grasshopper…” [1&2]. Continue reading →