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Jagdeo/Kissoon libel case…Court allows defence to amend case, stay granted for plaintiff’s appeal
The High Court case involving former president Bharrat Jagdeo, Kaieteur News columnist Frederick Kissoon, the newspaper’s publisher Glenn Lall and its Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris has been suspended to facilitate an appeal by the former president’s lawyers following a ruling that will allow the amendment of the defence’s case.
Former president Bharrat Jagdeo
High Court Judge, Justice Brassington Reynolds, ruled yesterday that the defence could amend their case in order to prove justification of why the newspaper’s columnist described the former leader as an “ideological racist”.
While the matter was heard in the Judge’s Chambers, the plaintiff had earlier in the week laid over arguments why the defence should not be allowed to amend their case. Defence lawyer Nigel Hughes had submitted to the court legal documents to support reasons why the defence should be allowed to amend their case. He had also provided the court and the plaintiff with a copy of the amendments he was proposing.
Kaieteur News understands that the amendments were allowed as a matter of fairness in terms of giving the defence a chance to prove their case. To arguments relating to the stage at which these amendments were being pursued, it was noted that the amendments by the defence were only being made in response to issues of proof brought up by the plaintiff.
Lead by Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos with Attorney Sase Gunraj, the plaintiff had found difficulty with evidence that a defence witness was presenting a few weeks ago. Trade unionist, Lincoln Lewis, had started his testimony by reporting that the former president had intentionally suppressed the Critchlow Labour College.
His evidence came in line with allegations that Jagdeo had made certain decisions while in office to depress certain agencies that benefited mostly Afro-Guyanese. The evidence was one of several other testimonies made against the former president.
De Santos (SC) had however, expressed his discontent with the evidence that the defence was presenting. He had charged that while the defence was making assertions and bringing evidence to speak of ills against the former president, none was bringing evidence to justify what was being said. He was adamant that the defence had to justify their evidence.
He said that they should not only bring witnesses to say what the president had done, but prove accusations such as Afro-Guyanese being sidelined for certain jobs while Jagdeo was at the helm of the country.
Kaieteur News columnist Fredrick Kissoon
Hughes stated, however, that the defence was tasked with proving statements made against the former president. This, he related, was based on the research which Kissoon (the defendant) had conducted. He had stated, also, that the defence case is a plea of justification, and in doing so, witnesses were being called to speak on the areas of public/social services where “ideological racism” was practiced.
He told the court that he would thus be seeking to amend the case to deal specifically with the issue of justification. He had indicated that what the plaintiff was asking in terms of justification of evidence would require the defence to amend their case to include the justification of the evidence the witnesses were bring out.
De Santos was however unsupportive of the defence being allowed to amend their case. He said that not only would the defence be amending their case after the plaintiff would have closed theirs, but it would also be prejudicial to the plaintiff’s side.
More than two years into the libel case, De Santos was against Hughes seeking to make amendments at this stage of the matter. He charged that the defence should have known that they would have to amend their case and thus make the necessary changes.
Justice Reynolds has however, granted leave for the plaintiff to appeal the ruling, and also granted a stay, pending the results of the plaintiff’s appeal. Jagdeo is suing the defendants for more than $10M.
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