Salem family feud reaches High Court

A LEGAL dispute over businesses worth hundreds of millions of pounds that has torn apart one of London's wealthiest but most secretive families has finally reached the High Court.

- Jonathan Prynn

The Salem family, from Beirut in Lebanon, has been split for decades by a row over who is entitled to the profits from a London-based trading empire that operates mainly in west Africa and includes the rights to BAT cigarette imports in Nigeria.

Moussy Salem, 54, a grandson of the founder of the business, claims his late father and his descendants were wrongly cut out of his share of the proceeds by Moussy's uncles Freddy and Beno Salem. The claims are strongly denied by Freddy and Beno.