01 June 2017•Update: 01 June 2017
By Can Erozden
ANKARA
Turkey's leading cellphone operator Turkcell said on Thursday a $4.2 billion lawsuit against South African cellphone operator MTN over a icense in Iran will be heard by a court in Johannesburg.
Turkcell is claiming $4.2 billion for damages against MTN as the Turkish mobile phone operator alleges that MTN unlawfully acquired the Iranian mobile phone operating license that Turkcell won in 2004.
"The court in South Africa will view allegations that MTN had Iran license through bribery and corruption," Turkcell said in a statement.
"MTN used bribery and corruption to overturn the initial Iranian decision," Turkcell says in the statement.
Turkcell won the bid in the Iran Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 2004 and MTN came second. However the decision was reversed in 2005.
MTN has operated Iran’s first private cellphone license as "MTN Irancell" since 2005. In November 2013, Turkcell sued MTN in South Africa on corruption claims.
The high court in Johannesburg rejected MTN's objections on May 5, 2017.
Turkcell 'delighted'
"We are delighted that the case is finally coming to trial in South Africa", said Turkcell Legal and Regulation Executive Vice President Serhat Demir.
"We believe we have a very strong claim. The South African courts will be able to evaluate the huge amount of evidence we have to support our claim that MTN went to extraordinary lengths to unlawfully take Turkcell’s rights to the Iranian GSM license," Demir said.
