The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) has won a case leveled against them in a top French court by Qatar’s beIN SPORTS, the organization said in a statement.

 

“The judiciary’s ruling rejected all allegations made by beIN against Arabsat, confirming Arabsat’s valid position regarding all the accusations and defamation attempts led by Qatar’s media group, which sought to link our organization to the dubious beoutQ piracy,” the press release statement read.

 

“The French judiciary’s ruling, rejecting beIN’s lawsuit and allegations against Arabsat, has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt our organization’s valid position from day one, despite beIN SPORTS’ attempts to cast doubt on that position; its media smear campaign; and its relentless attempts to push bogus and misleading claims,” the statement added.

 

The ruling on June 13 comes a month after Yousef al-Obaidly, the chief executive officer of media group beIN, was handed preliminary charges of corruption as part of an investigation into the bidding process for the 2019 track world championships in Qatar.

 

Several Qatari and other media outlets reported on Saturday a press release issued by BeIN SPORTS which said that French court’s ruling had endorsed beIN’s technical reports, which claimed to prove Arabsat’s involvement in distributing beoutQ.

 

Arabsat said that while it welcomes the ruling in their favor, it said they “reserve the right to take legal action against beIN, its executives, and all parties involved in spreading false news regarding the Arabsat ruling.”

 

“The French courts’ conviction of beIN and its ruling that it pays unprecedented fines, as well as paying the prosecution costs represents justice and refutes all false accusations that Qatar’s beIN SPORTS group tried to pin on Arabsat to cover its technical failure to address media piracy. Arabsat hopes that the international federations will not drift behind defamation attempts and misleading campaigns led by the beIN organization, whose reputation has been tarnished by criminal investigations in France and Switzerland on charges of corruption and bribery,” the statement said.