MTN sticks to its guns as R4.2 billion Turkcell appeal looms
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MTN building MTN office on 14th Ave in Fairland Johannesburg.
Image: Timothy Bernard
Telecommunications group MTN said it was confident of exoneration in its long running battle with Turkcell on allegations of corruption as the matter comes up on appeal next week.
“We trust in the legal processes of the jurisdictions involved and believe that the appropriate forum for this case has already been determined. MTN is confident in its legal strategy and remains committed to adhering to all legal standards,” the group said.
The group is currently embroiled in a $4.2 billion (R75bn) legal wrangle with Turkish telemobile company Turkcell, which has alleged that MTN’s officials in South African bribed Iranian officials for access to the Iranian market with the belief that foreign government officials are immune from prosecution in South Africa.
That court decision is part of an ongoing case between Turkcell, through its affiliate EAC (Turkcell is a Turkish telecoms company) and MTN in connection with a GSM license in Iran. The case in Iran involves allegations of bribery and corruption against MTN, which paid off both Iranian and South African officials to overturn a public tender that it lost for a multi-billion-dollar opportunity to run the Iranian GSM telecom license.
In a 2022 decision in that case, a South African judge ruled that companies and individuals alleged to have bribed officials of a foreign government were immune from prosecution within South Africa. The appeal was accepted by the High Court, leading to the dismissal of the case. The court observed that a foreign government (Iran in this case), whose officials allegedly received the bribes, may have an interest in the matter.
“Turkcell Global Counsel Cedric Soule said the appeal on the 2022 ruling by the court on jurisdiction was significant.”
“We believe MTN’s arguments that the court would not have jurisdiction are flawed. If we win the appeal, the case from 2013 keeps going and we move to trial with the evidence. The court will hear the evidence of alleged wrongdoing. For now the main issue is that of jurisdiction,” Soule said. The matter dating back to a 2013 court process, stemmed from allegations of corruption by the Turkey-based mobile operator which lodged a $4.2bn lawsuit in a US court accusing MTN of engaging in corrupt behaviour to secure a mobile licence in Iran in 2005.
The lawsuit cites the MTN group South Africa, MTN International Mauritius along with other subsidiaries as well as Former Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko and former Director Irene Charnley Soule said the Turkish mobile operator said the Iranian mobile operator believed that MTN officials, from South Africa had to be brought to book on the corruption allegations which included charges of allegedly bribing former South African ambassador to Iran, Yusuf Saloojee, Iranian official Javid Ghorbanoghli, and other South African and Iranian government officials, in efforts to win the licence.
Turkcell also claimed that MTN lobbied South Africa to back Tehran’s nuclear development programme, while promising Iran that the group would use its political “influence” to procure the supply of defence equipment to Iran.
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