The UK’s Mail on Sunday newspaper has agreed to pay substantial libel damages to Saudi businessman Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz, over an article published in 2002, which suggested that he was the brother-in-law of Osama Bin Laden and helped to finance terrorism.
The parties have agreed that the amount of damages being paid and contribution to costs being made by the Mail on Sunday is to be kept confidential.
In yesterday’s hearing at the High Court in London before Justice Eady, the newspaper accepted that there was no truth whatsoever in the allegations. The paper acknowledged that Sheikh Khalid was not Bin Laden’s brother in law and had never supported or funded terrorist activities.
Sheikh Khalid, for many years Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), was also accused by the Mail on Sunday of being dismissed from the bank because of funding of terrorism. At the hearing, the newspaper acknowledged that he had left NCB for health reasons only.
According to solicitors acting for Sheikh Khalid, the Saudi businessman plans to donate the damages paid by the newspaper to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Sheikh Khalid, aged 53, is the second son of Salem Bin Mahfouz, the founder of NCB. When Salem died in 1994, Sheikh Khalid inherited his father's holding in NCB.
The business interests of Sheikh Khalid and his immediate family can be characterized as a broad-based investment group. Its principal areas of investment are the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe, with additional interests in the Far East. The group is privately owned and headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
