Graduate protestor bags £20k in damages from Sussex

In November 2013, a group of five students, who came to be known as “The Sussex Five”, were suspended over protests against privatisation on campus. After hundreds of staff and students protested against their suspensions, the five were later reinstated as members of the uni. But that wasn’t the end of the drama.

This year, Michael Segalov, ex-communications officer for the SU, took the university to court for misrepresenting him. He won his case and took home a whopping £20,000 after the university admitted that there was “no truth” in it’s claims that protests led by Segalov were ‘criminal activity’ and ‘unlawful occupations’. Segalov was misrepresented in 2 news bulletins written by the university in December 2013.

Segalov (right) seems to always make the news

Speaking to The Guardian, Segalov said: “Throughout my time as a student, I maintained that the campaigns I was part of were peaceful in nature, leaderless in their organisation, and had the support of the majority of students and staff.

“The University of Sussex administration showed a blatant disregard for basic principles of law when attempting to clamp down on protests – suspending students wrongfully, banning protests, and publishing defamatory statements about me online.”

Just weeks ago, The Badger, the official student newspaper of the SU, tried to report on this story, but were censored by the SU. Editions of the inflammatory paper were eventually sent to print, but only distributed after Badger writers either crossed out or clipped out the article regarding Segalov’s victory in this case.

The university have issued a letter of apology to the LLB graduate, which came out yesterday.