Tue 14 July 2020:
The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected the appeal by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against a decision by the world civil aviation body in favor of Qatar over sovereign airspace, ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said.
The State of Qatar welcomes today’s ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it has the right to challenge airspace restrictions imposed by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt (blockading states) before the UN’s aviation body – the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The top UN court backed Qatar and unanimously “rejects the appeal” by the four blockading states against the decision by the world civil aviation body who ruled in favour of Doha over sovereign airspace, ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said.
ICAO ruled in 2018 that it had the jurisdiction to handle a dispute brought by Qatar, which accused its neighbours of violating international conventions that regulate the free passage of its passenger planes through foreign airspace.
Since June 2017, the blockading states have prohibited Qatar-registered aircraft from flying to or from their airports and overflying their national airspaces, in flagrant violation of international law. In two judgements released today, the ICJ rejected all three grounds of appeal raised by the blockading states, finding that the ICAO has jurisdiction to hear Qatar’s claims. The ICAO Council will now resume its proceedings.
The Minister of Transport and Communications of Qatar, HE Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti: “We welcome today’s decision by the ICJ that will see the blockading states finally face justice for violating international aviation rules. We are confident that the ICAO will ultimately find these actions unlawful. This is the latest in a series of rulings that expose the Blockading Countries’ continued disregard for international law and due process. Step by step their arguments are being dismantled, and Qatar’s position vindicated.”
Since the start of the illegal blockade in June 2017, Qatar has maintained that the blockading states have acted illegally and in violation of international law. Today’s verdict is the latest in a series of international judgements vindicating this position and finding in favour of Qatar. It follows a ruling by the World Trade Organization in June that Saudi Arabia breached global trade rules by failing to take action against, and instead actively promoting, broadcast pirate beoutQ.
Qatar’s decision to bring claims before the ICAO follows repeated attempts to negotiate an amicable settlement, which have been consistently rejected by the Blockading States.
Saudi Arabia permanently cancels license of Qatar’s beIN Sports
Separately, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Competition (GAC) on Tuesday said it had permanently canceled the license of Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports, which has been barred from broadcasting in the kingdom since mid-2017 due to the dispute with Doha.
GAC said in a statement on its website and carried by state television that it was also fining beIN Sports 10 million riyals ($2.7 million) for alleged “monopolistic practices.”
There was no immediate comment from Qatari authorities or beIN, which holds regional broadcasting rights for several major global sporting events and entertainment shows.
GAC said it found beIN Sports had “abused its dominant position through several monopolistic practices” related to what it described as an exclusive sports broadcast bundle for the 2016 UEFA European Championship soccer matches.
In 2018, Qatar filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying Saudi Arabia was blocking beIN from broadcasting in the kingdom and said it had refused to take effective action against alleged piracy of beIN’s content by beoutQ, a commercial-scale pirating operation.
A WTO panel last month found that Saudi Arabia had breached global rules on intellectual property rights by failing to prosecute beoutQ, while supporting Saudi Arabia’s view that it could block the Qatari broadcaster from obtaining legal counsel in the kingdom.
BeoutQ is widely available in Saudi Arabia but Riyadh has repeatedly said it was not based there and that it was committed to protecting intellectual property. Reuters could not determine who owns or operates beoutQ.
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