Wealthy businessman Yousef Jameel settled a libel action today with the Sunday Times which published an article reporting he had links with Osama bin Laden. The Saudi Arabian, whose group of companies includes the major British car dealership, Hartwell plc, agreed to withdraw the libel case on undisclosed terms.
James Price QC, representing him at the High Court in London, told Mr Justice Gray that the article, published in June 2003, was headed “Car tycoon ‘linked’ to bin Laden”. Alongside the article were pictures of Mr Jameel, one of his car dealerships and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in flames.
It reported that Mr Jameel had been added as a defendant in litigation brought in the United States on behalf of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
Mr Price said: “Mr Jameel was concerned that readers of the article may have understood it to suggest that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that he had financially supported Osama bin Laden in connection with terrorism and that he helped fund the training of the terrorists who carried out the attacks.”