MTN move to dismiss Turkcell claim

MTN yesterday decided to unleash a release which calls for the immediate dismissal of the Turkcell US claims, check out the official release: MTN dismisses Turkcell US claim. They use some pretty strong and colourful language, well I thought so anyhow, the first part and last part I think is most important. Here is a copy/paste. "... the US court does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter of Turkcell's claim, because Turkcell has not alleged a violation of the law of nations as required under US law for the sort of claim Turkcell is seeking to bring... " AND " ... the US court lacks personal jurisdiction over MTN and its subsidiary, MTN International..., which is also named in the US action. MTN and MTN International both lack sufficient contact with the United States to be subject to the jurisdiction of the US court." MTN are suggesting the US courts dismiss the case, Turkcell will respond to this motion by mid August. I hope that I have used the correct legal terminology.


Second, as MTN point out, Turkcell have already been sent packing in Paris (that is France guys) in front of a arbitration tribunal, in which their former Iranian JV partner was involved. MTN reckons that the case will be thrown out by the end of the year, but I then wonder what Turkcell would do next, because clearly they are not letting this just lie down or go away. The MTN share price in recent days has awoken from their seemingly long slumber, and are pretty close to their 52 week high. In contrast, poor Telkom traded at a 52 week (and all time low in their current format) low yesterday. That of course is another story, for another day. In a way, Telkom are admitting defeat through their increasing of their ADSL offering.