An Arab leader has dropped his appeal against the lifting of reporting restrictions on a case concerning arms cash deposits by the Middle Eastern state of Qatar.

In December the Jersey Evening Post won a battle to persuade the Royal Court to lift its ban on reporting the case.

Qatar’s foreign minister was alleged to have paid cash received in commissions for arms contracts into private trusts in the Island.

But the reporting restrictions stayed in place after the minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al Thani, lodged an appeal.

Now the Sheikh, one of the key Arab leaders in the war against Iraq, has decided to drop his appeal, claiming that the continuation of legal proceedings would be a distraction from his role in the international crisis.

Editor Chris Bright said: “The outcome of the proceedings has vindicated the stand taken by this newspaper 15 months ago, when we were threatened with a contempt of court action for reporting the mere existence of the Qatar case.

“It is a fundamental principle of society that justice must not only be done but also be seen to be done and our concern throughout has been to safeguard the freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

“A complex series of obstacles was placed in the way of those freedoms and they have all been overcome thanks to the sustained brilliant work of our lawyers, Advocates Nuno Santos-Costa and Jane Martin.

“This is a very satisfactory conclusion both in its own right and because of the guidelines for the future established by the judgment in favour of the JEP.”

The Sheikh has also agreed to pay the newspaper’s £80,000 legal costs incurred during the historic 15-month press freedom case.

The multi-millionaire’s own legal bill has been estimated in hundreds of thousands of pounds.

His decision completes the Jersey Evening Post’s victory in its battle to report on complex Royal Court proceedings involving the alleged payment into three Jersey-registered trusts of bribes made to the Sheikh by arms contractors.

Sheikh Hamad maintained that the payments to him were commissions, not bribes, and has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

His decision to withdraw allows the release of court papers withheld pending the appeal.

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