RIYADH: A case filed by the prime minister of Qatar against Asharq Al-Awsat has been settled out of court without any payment for damages, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, filed the suit against the newspaper in a British court of law. “The settlement... was reached by the two parties following negotiations, which lasted for over a year,” the daily reported.
It added that the agreement stipulates that the two parties would bear their own financial expenses, that a correction would be published in Asharq Al-Awsat — both in print and online, that a correction would be read in court, and that the newspaper would never again publish the contents of the original articles, which drew the case.
Sheikh Hamad had filed the case in objection to three articles in Asharq Al-Awsat, which alleged that the Qatari leader visited Israel while on his way from Damascus to Beirut to attend a meeting of Arab foreign ministers during Israel’s war against Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
“Sheikh Hamad, through his lawyers in London, filed a suit in 2007 against Asharq Al-Awsat for publishing three articles. The first and second were news items published in August 2006. The third was an article published in the opinion page by Tariq Alhomayed, editor in chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, in March 2007,” the Al-Riyadh newspaper reported.
“According to the settlement agreement between the lawyers, Asharq Al-Awsat published a corrigendum, which contained an apology for any embarrassment the publication of the matter of visiting (Israel) on his way to Beirut in the summer of 2006 caused Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem,” it added.
Al-Riyadh newspaper said: “What some quarters said that the publishers of Asharq Al-Awsat had apologized was inaccurate and the text of the statement, which the lawyers read at the court as part of the settlement, refers to the publishing company (that is the Saudi Research and Publishing Co. in the UK).”
It added: “The Qatari media, which carried the report of the settlement between Sheikh Hamad and Asharq Al-Awsat, portrayed the matter as though the court had looked into the case and Asharq Al-Awsat had lost. On the other hand, the issue has been dealt within the framework of a settlement by mutual consent.”
Al-Riyadh concluded that it had learned that there were numerous requests during negotiations between the two lawyers for waivers. Sheikh Hamad and Asharq Al-Awsat made several waivers, which led to the issue being resolved and the out-of-court settlement.
