By AGENCIES
AFRICA’s largest mobile operator MTN this week filed a motion to dismiss a $4,2bn lawsuit by Turkish firm Turkcell in a US court.
MTN’s court motion has set the scene for a battle with Turkcell over the lucrative and highly profitable mobile licence in Iran. MTN owns 49% in Irancell, its fastest-growing market and the second-largest in subscriber numbers with 36,8-million customers. MTN generated $1,3 bn, or 9% of annual revenue, from Iran last year.
In its court papers filed in February in a US federal court, Turkcell alleges that MTN bribed government officials, arranged meetings between Iranian and South African leaders, and promised Iran weapons and United Nations votes in exchange for a mobile licence. MTN has denied the allegations.
Turkcell claimed it was initially awarded the licence that was later given to MTN. In its motion, MTN said the claims had no legal merit and the court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter.
MTN said Turkcell was improperly trying to use the Alien Tort Statute to bring a commercial dispute between a Turkish company and a South African company before a US court. The 1789 law, usually cited in human rights and torture cases, gives US courts jurisdiction in some instances to consider claims by foreigners for illegal conduct that occurred in another country.
"This is not a case about grave issues of universal international concern that the statute addresses — such as piracy and genocide," says MTN’s filing.
"This case is about one thing: Turkcell trying to get paid by a nonstate actor for an Iranian cellular telephone licence it claims it lost unfairly. We respectfully submit that a US district court has no business deciding this dispute."
Turkcell’s US claim is a legally insufficient restatement of a case that Turkcell has already lost, says MTN. Turkcell took its former partner in Iran to arbitration but the matter was recently dismissed by a Paris-based tribunal.
Moreover, the US court lacks personal jurisdiction over MTN and its subsidiary, MTN International
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