The High Court per Mr Justice Choudhury has delivered judgment in Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia v Antuan and Bakr.
In this urgent High Court injunction, two former employees of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s foreign mission in London were alleged to have exfiltrated, used and disclosed confidential and sensitive documents concerning the operations of the mission. The Defendants argued that they had only done so for the purposes of pursuing employment tribunal claims against their former employer.
As a matter of international law, under Article 24 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, the archives and documents of the mission are inviolable.
Choudhury J held that there was a serious issue to be tried as to the Defendants’ breaches of Article 24 under international law, as well as their breaches of confidence and contract at common law. In further holding that damages would be an inadequate remedy and that the balance of convenience favoured the granting of interim relief, the High Court made injunction orders for confidentiality, preservation, delivery-up and witness statements explaining what use had been made of the mission’s inviolable documents.
Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. and Joel Wallace appeared on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP.
Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. specialises in domestic, international and offshore business protection, employment, partnership and sport litigation and arbitration. He is Top-Ranked in Chambers (UK and Global) and Legal 500 (UK, EMEA and Caribbean). He is the Commercial Silk of the Year (Legal 500 MENA Awards 2026). For two years running, he won Senior Counsel of the Year (International Employment Lawyer Awards 2023 and 2024). He also won Employment Silk of the Year (Legal 500 Bar Awards 2023) and Civil Lawyer of the Year (Asian Legal Awards 2022). He is a former Chair of the UK’s Employment Law Bar Association and is currently Co-Head of the Middle East Group.
Joel Wallace is ranked in both sports and employment law. He acts across the full range of both disciplines, including arbitration, commercial and contract disputes, business protection, misconduct, doping, whistleblowing, and discrimination. These cases frequently receive press attention. His clients include football clubs, regulators, agents, stock brokerages, consultancy firms and educational institutions. He recently appeared in the Supreme Court (led by Mohinderpal Sethi K.C.) in Saudi Arabia v Costantine [2025] 1 WLR 1207, [2025] ICR 768, [2025] IRLR 636, a leading case on state immunity under international law.
