The Guardian Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Jonathan Aitken==== In 1995, both the [[Granada Television]] programme ''[[World in Action]]'' and ''The Guardian'' were sued for [[libel]] by the then cabinet minister [[Jonathan Aitken#Libel, arrest and prison|Jonathan Aitken]], for their allegation that [[Harrods]] owner [[Mohamed Al Fayed]] had paid for Aitken and his wife to stay at the [[Hôtel Ritz Paris|Hôtel Ritz]] in Paris, which would have amounted to accepting a bribe on Aitken's part. Aitken publicly stated that he would fight with "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play".<ref>{{cite news |title=The simple sword of truth |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1995/apr/11/uk1 |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=11 April 1995 |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=19 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140919092400/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/1995/apr/11/uk1 |url-status=live }}</ref> The court case proceeded, and in 1997 ''The Guardian'' produced evidence that Aitken's claim of his wife paying for the hotel stay was untrue.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1997/jun/21/uk.davidpallister|title=He lied and lied and lied|work=The Guardian|location=London|date=21 June 1997|last1=Harding|first1=Luke|author2=David Pallister|author2-link=David Pallister|access-date=13 December 2016|archive-date=15 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715035835/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1997/jun/21/uk.davidpallister|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1999, Aitken was jailed for [[perjury]] and [[perverting the course of justice]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/258070.stm |title=Aitken pleads guilty to perjury |publisher=BBC News |date=19 January 1999 |access-date=8 September 2004 |archive-date=2 July 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040702214336/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/258070.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page