JEDDAH, 6 February 2005 — Mohammed Jameel, president of the Abdul Latif Jameel Group, and Abdul Latif Jameel Company Limited yesterday won a libel suit in the British Court of Appeal against the Wall Street Journal Europe.
The court upheld awards of libel damages of 30,000 pounds to Jameel and 10,000 pounds to the company, rejecting an appeal made by WSJ Europe.
The case related to an article titled “Saudi Officials Monitor Certain Bank Accounts” that was published in WSJ Europe on Feb. 6, 2002. The article alleged that the ALJ Group was “one of a number of prominent Saudi businesses which were being monitored by the Saudi banking regulators” at the request of US law enforcement agencies.
The Wall Street Journal Europe had never claimed its article was true, but had sought to persuade the court that it had acted responsibly in publishing its story. In a ruling upheld yesterday by the Court of Appeal, the trial judge, Justice Eady, rejected this defense.
“The Court of Appeal refused the Wall Street Journal Europe permission to appeal to the House of Lords,” a press statement said. WSJ Europe was ordered to pay the costs of court proceedings.
Mohammed Jameel expressed his satisfaction over the judgment. “We brought this action to protect the reputation of our business, established more than 50 years ago. We are delighted that the Court of Appeal has ruled in our favor,” he said.
The ALJ Group and Mohammed Jameel are known for their support of social and community organizations in Saudi Arabia. The Red Crescent’s expansion of its services and training schemes in the Jeddah area recently received help from the group, as have organizations helping paraplegics and other disadvantaged citizens.
ALJ was honored last year as one of the pioneering national companies for its role in expanding and supporting employment opportunities for nationals and encouraging citizens to join the company. It received an award of distinction during the conference of GCC ministers of labor and social affairs in Kuwait.
Andrew Stephenson, a senior partner of the law firm that acted for the ALJ Group, said that the WSJ article was written based on information gleaned from other publications and that the paper would have been well advised to access the original sources. Written at a time when there was much press speculation about the use and abuse of charitable organizations in the Kingdom, he said that the article was “rife with speculation.”
The ALJ Group has been particularly careful in its internal monitoring of charitable donations, Stephenson said.
The ALJ Group is the largest independent distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the world, with interests in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and China. It employs over 9,800 people worldwide with 1,900 people in the UK alone.
