"The Forbidden Truth" / "La vérité interdite" by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié

The book The Forbidden Truth / La Vérité interdite, contains numerous allegations and statements concerning Khalid Bin Mahfouz, his family and certain companies with which they are associated, which are patently false and defamatory.

In particular, Chapter 12 appears to be a deliberate attempt to tarnish the family's reputation in the eyes of society and to harm its members by exposing them to the hatred and contempt engendered by the publication of the false information contained in the text.

In addition, the book is riddled with factual errors about the family, its business activities and its donations to charitable organizations. For example, the authors state that Khalid Bin Mahfouz is 73 years old. In fact Mr Bin Mahfouz was born in 1949. They state that his sister is married to Osama Bin Laden: no sister of Khalid Bin Mahfouz is married to a member of the Bin Laden family.

The authors or their representatives have never approached Khalid Bin Mahfouz or his family to inquire about the facts or to verify the veracity of the statements made about these people in their book.

Khalid Bin Mahfouz and Abdulrahman Bin Mahfouz commenced defamation proceedings in Belgium on 19 February 2003 and in England on 24 April 2003 against the book in question. On 22 August 2003 the High Court of Justice of England ordered judgment against Guillaume Dasquié following his failure to defend himself in this action, and issued an injunction against him for the publication in England of the defamatory parts of the book. The proceedings against Jean-Charles Brisard are ongoing. Khalid Bin Mahfouz and his family continue to reserve the right to sue the authors, editors, publishers, distributors and printers of this book in any other jurisdiction.

On October 22, 2003, Mr. Brisard made several inaccurate statements about Khalid Bin Mahfouz before the US Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during the hearing "Counterterrorism Initiatives in the Terror Finance Program". Jones Day, acting on behalf of Khalid Bin Mahfouz, wrote a letter of correction to the Committee on October 30, 2003 (Click here to access it)