Said fails to secure injunction against French magazine

Wafic Said, the Syrian-born financier who played a key role in the Al-Yamamah arms deals between the UK and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, has failed in an attempt to force the French current affairs magazine L’Express to remove an article about him from its website. In a judgement issued on 21 December, following a hearing in the High Court in London on 28 November, Mr Justice Nicol ruled that Said had not shown that his centre of interests is in England and Wales and, as such, the court did not have jurisdiction to grant an injunction to restrain online publication of the article.