by Christian Mensch
08.12.2018

First exchange of blows concerning Bruno Manser Fund before the Basel Civil Court
[English translation of the original German language article - Zeit Der Abrechnung]

​Sakto Corporation is a small real estate company in Ottawa, Canada. But Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) is certain: Sakto is engaged in money laundering. The firm is funded by money allegedly earned through deforestation of the Malaysian rainforest. After all, Sakto belongs to the daughter of the Malaysian ex-governor Mahmud Taib and her husband.

The Basel-based nongovernmental organization has waged a campaign against Sakto for nine years as part of its effort to combat rainforest deforestation. In the past year, however, its attempt to obtain concrete financial data on Sakto by judicial means in Canada failed. Since then, a counter-campaign against BMF has been under way.

In August, Sakto filed an extensive action with the Civil Court in Basel for defamation. It is linked to a request for preliminary injunctive relief, requiring BMF to delete statements in the public domain and face a fine of 1,000 francs a day in the event of further “infringing acts.” On Friday, an initial hearing took place before the judge Salome Wolf, which was to address two preliminary questions: Is there urgency to justify the injunctive relief? And do the Basel judicial authorities even have jurisdiction in the case?

by Franziska Laur
08.12.2018

Canadian real estate firm sues for defamation
[English translation of the original German language article - Ungemach Für Manser Fond]

Basel. For nine whole years, Sakto, a Canadian real estate firm, has been aware of the accusations of money laundering leveled by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), but now its patience has apparently come to an end: yesterday the Canadians asked the Basel Civil Court to prohibit the further dissemination of 1,100 accusatory documents.

Two sub-aspects of the case were heard yesterday: whether Canadian or Swiss law should be applied and whether an urgent preliminary injunction should be handed down.

Both parties expressed confidence that they will prevail and said that they were glad to be able to make their case. The court will inform the parties of its judgment by mail. It can be assumed that the Sakto v. BMF case will be litigated for a long time to come.