French and Belgium judgments against Khalid Bin Mahfouz

By JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, INTERNATIONAL EXPERT ON TERRORISM FINANCING
JCB BLOG - http://jcb.blogs.com/
May 20, 2005

Khalid Bin Mahfouz brought libel actions against me and my companies in the UK based on presumed defamatory statements made in reports published on the Internet. UK courts are very convenient for this purpose as British law puts the burden in libel cases on the defendant to prove their accusations. On this issue, see the Newsweek article on "Libel Tourism" of October 22, 2003. Khalid Bin Mahfouz obtained a default judgment of the High Court of London against me on July 1, 2004. Since then, he tried to enforce this judgment in France (my country of citizenship) and Switzerland (my country of residence). A French decision of April 28, 2005 (Kbm French decision 042805.pdf) lifted preliminary measures to enforce the UK decision and condemned Khalid Bin Mahfouz to pay expenses and fees in connection to this action. In addition, an appeal on the enforcement itself is pending. Khalid Bin Mahfouz also sued me in Belgium where his claim was dismissed by a decision of the High Court of Brussels on December 21, 2004 (Kbm_belgium.pdf).