MTN has filed a motion to dismiss the case filed against it by Turkey’s Turkcell in a US federal court, the JSE-listed telecommunications group said on Tuesday.

MTN filed the motion to dismiss the case on Monday, 2 July.

The operator says Turkcell’s claim against it in the US is the latest of four legal claims the Turkish company has launched after it failed to secure the second GSM licence in Iran in 2005. The licence went to MTN Irancell, in which MTN has a 49% stake.

“As stated in [the] motion to dismiss, MTN contends that Turkcell’s US claim is a legally insufficient restatement of a case that Turkcell has already tried and lost,” the group says. “MTN’s motion seeks the dismissal of Turkcell’s US claim on the grounds that there is no proper basis for such a claim to be brought for three principal reasons.”

The first of these reasons, it says, is that the US court “does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter of Turkcell’s claim because Turkcell has not alleged a violation of the law of nations as required under US law for the sort of claim Turkcell is seeking to bring in the US”.

“Secondly, because Turkcell’s arbitration against its former Iranian joint venture partner was recently dismissed by a Paris-based arbitral tribunal, Turkcell’s US claim should be dismissed as already having been decided against Turkcell,” MTN says. “The award precludes the claim now brought by Turkcell against MTN in the US courts for the alleged loss of the licence.”

The third reason, according to MTN is that the US court “lacks personal jurisdiction over MTN and its subsidiary, MTN International (Mauritius), which is also named in the US action. MTN and MTN International both lack sufficient contact with the US to be subject to the jurisdiction of the US court.”

Turkcell has until 1 August to respond to the MTN motion and MTN must reply to the response by 15 August 2012.

“As previously stated and for the reasons set out in the motion to dismiss, MTN believes that there is no legal merit to Turkcell’s US claim and no basis for such a claim to be brought in the US court, and MTN therefore remains confident that the claim will be dismissed.” — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media