(BBC) An Ethiopian-born billionaire has won £175,000 in libel damages over allegations he had hunted his daughter down so she could be stoned to death.
Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi was born in Ethiopia, but now spends his time at homes in central London, Surrey and Saudi Arabia.
The article was published on the online news website Ethiopian Review.
Judge Richard Parkes QC said it was difficult to imagine more serious allegations.
The site’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Elias Kifle, had denied liability.
The judge said that instead of apologising Mr Kifle had repeated the libel and abused Mr al-Amoudi and his lawyers.
The High Court in London heard Mr Kifle’s response to the initial complaint was: “Here is my formal statement: Screw yourself”.
The court heard Mr Kifle then went on to describe Mr al-Amoudi as a “scumbag bloodsucker” who was “funding al-Qaeda”.
Mr al-Amoudi, 65, gave evidence during the libel trial that he was completely opposed to all forms of terrorism.
The judge said the site alleged that Mr al-Amoudi had “disgracefully and callously” married off his daughter Sarah, then 13, to an elderly member of the Saudi royal family as a gift.
‘Wholly untrue’
The article went on to claim that Mr al-Amoudi was probably responsible for murdering his daughter’s lover in Iraq and had hunted his daughter and granddaughter across London in an attempt to ensure they were stoned to death in Saudi Arabia.
Mr al-Amoudi told the court he was horrified by the “wholly untrue” article which could be seen by visitors to the website between January and August 2010, when it was finally taken down.
Mr al-Amoudi, who has a son and seven daughters, said he had a normal relationship with Sarah, who was not married.
He said she had completed a business administration degree in the UK.
Assessing damages, the judge said: “The claimant is not, I judge, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve.
“But his distress as he described the effect of the article on himself and on his family was evident to me, and the more so because, as it seemed to me, he was doing his best to preserve his composure.”
Mr al-Amoudi, who was in the top 50 of Forbes magazine’s 2009 rich list, is believed to have made his money in construction, oil refineries and mining.
Mr al-Amoudi, who is of mixed Ethiopian and Arab heritage, is sometimes described as the world’s richest black man.
He was recently reported to be financing the building of Saudi Arabia’s first car factory.
Woyanne/Saudi businessman Mohammed Al Amoudi, who is looting and plundering Ethiopia, has submitted a testimony for his lawsuit against Ethiopian Review editor. His testimony is full of real funny stuff such as he doesn’t fund terrorists and that he keeps his personal life private. Read the full text of his 8-page testimony here.
Al Amoudi’s primary witness against Ethiopian Review is Yalew Kebede, an official of the Woyanne-occupied Ethiopian Embassy in London. Read his testimony here.
Woyanne money-man Al Amoudi has sent his chief servant Abinet Gebremeskel to Atlanta this week to reassert control over the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America, and so far it seems that he is succeeding by bullying the timid board members. At one point on Thursday, a fight broke out between the vice-president of ESFNA and one of Abinet’s thugs. On Friday, Arawit and the other members of the Abinet gang, who are not even board members, were taking charge of the event.
Abinet arrived in Atlanta with a chartered plane (at the cost of close to $30,000), several bodyguards, a gang of thugs, and a ton of cash that his boss stole from the people of Ethiopia. Every night this week, whiskey and wine have been flowing like water at lavish private parties thrown by Abinet. On Friday night, Desta Restaurant was the place to be for ganja-smoking Al Amoudi ass-kissers where the Abinet posse arrived with two stretched SUV limousines. The {www:obscene} drinking, smoking, and eating went on until dawn.
The whole scene is beyond disgusting, especially knowing the fact that at this very moment over 10 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya have nothing to eat. The money that Abinet is throwing around in Atlanta is not his money. It was stolen by his boss Al Amoudi and the Woyanne mafia from the people of Ethiopia. Any Ethiopian who dines and wines with these blood suckers must be well aware that he/she is feasting on the blood and bone of starving children back home.
Most Ethiopians are staying away from the ESFNA event this year to protest its continued association with the Woyanne junta and its agent Al Amoudi who are looting and plundering Ethiopia. ESFNA has a clear choice to make: cleanse itself of all Woyannes and their {www:lackey}s, or fall apart. The video below shows a soccer match between Las Vegas and Boston yesterday at the Georgia Dome. There was no one to watch the game.
The Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) is holding its annual event this week. This year’s event is being held in Atlanta. When ESFNA was formed about 28 years ago, it had a lofty goal of bringing Ethiopians in North America together around sports and cultural activities. Since 2005, however, the organization has been hijacked by the Woyanne junta through their money-man Al Amoudi. Soon, the annual event turned from a family gathering into a pandemonium of thugs and Al Amoudi’s manwhores. In short, it became a source of embarrassment for the Ethiopian communities in N. America.
After being bullied and pushed around by Al Amoudi’s thugs for several years, finally this year ESFNA’s board members started to muster some courage to take back the organization. They, however, are up against a well-financed gang of thugs led by Abinet Gebremeskel, and, to be frank, many of the board members luck the gut to stand up for the right thing.
To provide reinforcement for this gangsters, Abinet flew from Ethiopia recently with a bundle of cash and he is now running around in Atlanta with his bodyguards.
The majority of ESFNA’s board members will hopefully do the right thing and cleanse any Woyanne element from the organization. For example, Abinet and his thugs, must be banned from all ESFNA venues. Until they show the courage to do that, all patriotic Ethiopians need to boycott the ESFNA event that is underway in Atlanta. When it comes to the anti-Ethiopia Woyanne, there must be no compromise.
Ethiopian Review will closely follow the developments in Atlanta and post updates. Stay tuned.
By Elias Kifle
This past weekend (July 1st – 3rd) the Ethiopian Heritage Society in North America (EHSNA) held a highly successful Ethiopian festival in Washington DC. During the same period, on July 2nd, members and friends of Ethiopian Review gathered to celebrate the journal’s 20th anniversary. I participated in both events and left with a feeling that {www:Ethiopiawinet} has been reborn in North America.
Two days before Ethiopian Review to hold its 20th anniversary event, the Woyanne junta held a televised press conference to falsely accuse me of organizing terrorist activities. It’s clear that Woyanne’s intention was to terrorize people not to attend Ethiopian Review’s event for fear of being accused of supporting a “terrorist.” The propaganda did in fact scared off a few individuals, but the event achieved its objectives, i.e., celebrate our past achievements and recommit ourselves to work harder in the future.
The highlight of Ethiopian Review’s event were the speeches by Artiste Tamagne Beyene and my father, Kifle Seifu. Watch the video below.
(I will post the video of Tamagne’s speech shortly.)
Guest speakers included Ato Neamin Zeleke from Timret; Dr Aklog Birara, a senior economist at the World Bank; Ato Masresha Tilahun from Ethiopian National Youth Movement; and Ato Abebe Belew from Addis Dimts Radio.
There was also an auction to raise funds for Ethiopian Review’s 2011 expansion plan.
The event was concluded at 6 PM and most of us went straight to the Ethiopian Festival that was underway at the Georgetown University in Washington DC.
When I arrived there, I could not believe my eyes. The stadium was filled with thousands of people of all ages — from small children to the elderly. I knew the festival would be a great success, but not to this extent in its first year.
As we all know, the Woyanne junta that is currently looting and plundering Ethiopia has been trying to destroy Ethiopiawinet in the Diaspora by infiltrating institutions and turning them into its own political tools. One of its victims was the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) that had been hijacked by Woyanne businessman Sheik Al Amoudi. This past weekend, Woyanne’s Diaspora campaign, financed by an annual budget of $40 million, has finally been dealt a major blow. Ethiopiawinet is being revived once again thanks to a group of patriotic Ethiopians who came together to organize such a spectacular event.
At the stadium, I met several Ethiopians from as far as California and Calgary, Canada, who came with their families to participate in the festival. It was a great feeling to spend time with them.
The organizers, led by Dr Shakespeare Feyissa, Ato Tekle Abebe, and Wzr. Meron Ahadu, did a magnificent job that has exceeded every one’s expectation.
