JEDDAH, 18 April 2004 — USA Today newspaper has retracted a number of allegations against prominent Saudi businessman Khaled Bin Mahfouz a month after he won a landmark libel suit against a British newspaper.
Last October USA Today had published an article headed “Saudi Money Aiding Bin Laden”, which contained a number of allegations against the National Commercial Bank and Bin Mahfouz, its founder and former chairman.
The article’s author, Jack Kelley, was suspended early this year after it became clear he had fabricated several high-profile stories, prompting the newspaper to review the article.
In a retraction published on April 12, the paper corrected a range of assertions including that the Saudi government ordered an audit of NCB and Bin Mahfouz, saying it now had “no reason to believe such an audit occurred.”
“The report also suggested that as a result of the audit, Bin Mahfouz had been placed under ‘house arrest’ while hospitalized,” the retraction reads, “and USA Today has no reason to believe that he was.” The paper said the article could be read to suggest that Bin Mahfouz was among those who allegedly paid “protection money” to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden to stave off attacks on their businesses. “USA Today disagrees with that assertion; in any event, no such implication was intended,” it added.
In March Bin Mahfouz and Nimir Petroleum won a libel action against publisher Pluto Press and author Michael Griffin in the High Court in London.
The suit followed publication of a revised edition of the book “Reaping the Whirlwind”, in which Griffin alleged Bin Mahfouz and Nimir Petroleum funded Osama Bin Laden’s and Al-Qaeda’s terrorist activities.
Both the publisher and the author issued a full apology and paid undisclosed damages.
