Khayat Family

Tahseen Khayat is a businessman, founder and CEO of Al-Jadeed and Tahseen Khayat Group, a company involved in publishing, printing, distribution, media, energy production, oil and gas, engineering, leisure, and hospitality, in Lebanon, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Although not directly involved in Lebanese politics, Tahseen Khayat had several face-offs with the authorities. In the 1990s, his opposition to former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and to the Head of the Syrian Intelligence in Lebanon led to the exclusion of Al-Jadeed from the list of media outlets granted licenses to broadcast. After Al-Jadeed resumed broadcasting in 2001, Tahseen Khayat was briefly arrested and accused of collaboration with Israel, then released and cleared. Tahseen’s children are also involved in the TV channel, mainly his daughter Karma, Deputy General Manager of Al-Jadeed. In 2015, she faced trial before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague, accused of contempt of court and obstruction of justice, when the channel revealed details about witnesses that the Tribunal was supposed to call for testimony. She was eventually acquitted in April 2016. Karma’s siblings, Karim, Bouchra, Nadia, and Ghida are also shareholders. In 2021, Tahseen Khayat and his family were mentioned in the Pandora Papers as persons engaging in tax evasion through their offshore companies.