South African telecommunications group MTN Group Ltd. says an anti-terrorism case against it in the United States will proceed to the discovery phase after a New York court rejected its request for reconsideration.
Ravenewsonline reports that MTN is facing several lawsuits — the Cabrera, Zobay, Long, and Chand & Davis cases — brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act over allegations relating to its former operations in Syria, Afghanistan and Iran.
Among the allegations is that MTN paid protection money to the Taliban to secure its telecommunications towers, thereby allegedly financing terrorist activities and contributing to the deaths of U.S. military personnel.
In its latest update, MTN said the development relates specifically to the Zobay and Long cases, while there had been no material developments in the Cabrera and Chand & Davis cases.
The telecommunications group stressed that the latest rulings are procedural and do not constitute a finding of wrongdoing or liability against it.
MTN said the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York had denied its requests to reconsider, or allow an immediate appeal of, an earlier decision permitting certain claims under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act in Zobay v. MTN Group Limited to proceed.
The Zobay case, together with the related Long v. MTN Group Limited case pending before the same court, will now move into the discovery phase.
Discovery is the stage of litigation during which parties exchange relevant information and evidence in their possession.
According to MTN, once discovery is concluded, the parties will have an opportunity to file summary judgment motions, asking the court to determine the case based on the evidence obtained during discovery.
If the parties do not seek summary judgment, or if the court rejects such applications, the cases will proceed to the next stage of litigation.
MTN said that under U.S. law and procedure, it could not challenge the factual allegations against it at the motion-to-dismiss stage and that no finding had been made on the merits of the allegations.
“In the next phases of the litigation, MTN will, for the first time, have an opportunity to produce and solicit evidence to disprove plaintiffs’ allegations,” the company said.
MTN has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing in the cases.
The group said it sympathised with people injured or who lost loved ones as a result of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, while maintaining that evidence would show that it was not a culpable participant in the attacks in question.
“MTN continues to believe that the evidence will demonstrate that MTN was not a culpable participant in the attacks at issue,” it said.
The company said it would continue to defend the proceedings, consider all available legal options and update shareholders on material developments as appropriate.
