Americans file second case against MTN

The stakes have been raised in the lawsuit alleging that SA’s telecommunications giant MTN and other respondents contravened the US Antiterrorism Act by paying ‘protection money’ to the Taliban in Afghanistan. A Business Day report says it is the second such allegation against the multinational. MTN was accused by Nigerian authorities in 2016 of missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered mobile phone cards, which the militant Boko Haram group used to plot attacks. On Friday, lawyers representing the families of American servicemen and civilians killed and injured by the Taliban between 2009 and 2017 filed an enlarged and amended complaint in the District Court of Washington DC. The lawyers are seeking damages from MTN and the other companies as a result of their alleged explicit financial support for what the US considers a terrorist organisation. The amended complaint has been expanded to include almost 100 more American soldiers or contractors killed or injured at the hands of the Taliban. This is on top of the more than 140 named in the initial lawsuit filed in December 2019. The dead are represented by 702 members of their families.

The latest complaint includes three new defendants, all US-based companies: the Environmental Chemical Corporation, Blumont and Chemonics – which are or were involved in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The Business Day report says besides the damages being sought – which remain unquantified at this stage but could be punitive, even for a company of MTN’s size – the reputational issues associated with the case might restrict MTN’s ability to finance or insure itself with American financial institutions, as it has done in the past. In April, MTN filed a motion to dismiss the initial complaint on two grounds. It said the court in Washington DC lacked jurisdiction because MTN did not operate in the US. Second, the complaint did not allege any conduct by the company that violated the US Antiterrorism Act.