An evening newspaper has persuaded a court to lift reporting restrictions on a case concerning arms cash deposits by the Middle Eastern state of Qatar.

Jersey’s Royal Court has agreed to lift its ban on reporting a case in which Qatar’s foreign minister is alleged to have paid cash received in commissions for arms contracts into private trusts in the Island.

The court’s decision comes at the end of a year-long battle by the Jersey Evening Post to lift the secrecy surrounding the case in the interests of open justice.

But the reporting restrictions will remain in place pending an appeal by the Foreign Minister and the State of Qatar.

In its judgment on the newspaper’s bid to make the hearing public, the court disclosed that now-abandoned civil proceedings were begun by Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani – a member of Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family and the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.

He wanted to get money from the trusts, which had been effectively frozen under Jersey’s Proceeds of Crime Law pending the outcome of an investigation into possible criminal activity.

The judgment was delivered by the Bailiff of Jersey, Sir Philip Bailhache, who was asked by the Evening Post to review his own decisions – first to hold the proceedings in camera and then, when the newspaper reported on their existence, to impose unlimited blanket reporting restrictions.

He agreed yesterday to the lifting of the restrictions and also announced that the Court would publish a previously secret judgment in the case made on December 14 last year.

But he ruled that the original in camera order would remain in force to prevent transcripts of the hearing, which might prejudice the Sheikh or his trustees at Standard Chartered, or might endanger the national security of Britain’s Gulf ally, being made public.

The judgment also revealed that a secret affadavit on the national security issue had been submitted to the court by the Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces, General Hamad Bin Ali-Attiyah.

The Post’s representation claimed that the idea of an in camera hearing, followed by the imposition of a “draconian press prohibition”, without any explanation, was so hostile to the principle of open justice that they should not be maintained.

The reporting restrictions were imposed by Sir Philip in November last year after the Evening Post reported on the existence of the proceedings. Its editor was threatened with contempt of court proceedings for doing so – a threat later withdrawn after an investigation by Jersey’s Attorney-General William Bailhache.

Jersey Evening Post editor Chris Bright welcomed the judgment and said: “This newspaper’s action was undertaken because of the very important matters of principle which had arisen involving freedom of expression and the need for justice to be openly administered.

“These are clearly matters of great public interest and our stand has been vindicated by this judgment.”

Attorney-General Bailhache had previously announced that a criminal investigation into the affairs of the two Yaheeb Trusts and the Havana Trust was to be abandoned following the voluntary payment of £6m by the Qatari minister for foreign affairs, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani, who maintained his innocence.

He revealed in May that pursuing the investigation was not in the public interest and would threaten good relations between Jersey, the UK and Qatar.

The £6m payment, described as “reparation for perceived damage” as well as a contribution to the cost of the two-year investigation, was close to the maximum £7m which might have been confiscated under Jersey’s Proceeds of Crime Law in the event of a successful prosecution.

It was further revealed in June that civil proceedings over the trusts were discontinued by act of the Royal Court when the newspaper’s representation first came up for a hearing.