Nandlall sues Attorney General for $125M

Apr 16, 2017 News

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, has suffered “considerable distress, anxiety and public

Former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall

humiliation” as a result of words uttered by his successor, Basil Williams. Because of this, the Attorney has caused a court action to be filed against Williams. In the court action, Nandlall is seeking compensation to the tune of $125M. He is also seeking to have an injunction granted stopping Williams from repeating the “harmful” statements.
Nandlall is suing for $25M for slander at a press conference, hosted at the National Communication Network Inc. on March 24, last, and a further $25M for utterances at the very press conference.
Another $25M is called for because of libel published in the Guyana Times. There is a demand for a further $25M for slander published during an outreach programme in Berbice, and $25 M for libel published by Demerara Waves.
The injunction is to restrain Williams “by himself, his servants and/or agents from publishing or caused to be published or saying or caused to be said or repeating of and concerning the Claimant, the following.
Williams’s slanderous statements, according to Nandlall, include, “Mr. Nandlall will be charged for missing law books…Mr. Nandlall has stolen government property and he will be charged…” “Nandlall stole government property…the law books…he still has the law books and he will get lock up for the law books and anyone who claim they gave him permission to steal the law books will get locked up as well because there is no immunity for stealing and doing criminal acts in this country.”
Other statements were also quoted in the writ.
Nandlall notes that he is an Attorney-at-Law of good standing, admitted to practise at the Bar of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; the former AG; a Member of Parliament and Central and Executive Member of the People’s Progressive Party. But Williams has caused damage to his character.
He explained in the writ that Williams is well aware of his innocence in the matter but continues to make him out as a criminal.
He included a letter sent to the Auditor General explaining what happened.
Nandlall said that when he demitted office, he informed Lexis Nexis and requested that the payment arrangement which existed hitherto be re-activated.
Nandlall said that Ramotar also wrote the AG conveying the same story.

Attorney General, Basil Williams

The Auditor General completed this special investigation and submitted to the Defendant, his findings in a report during the month of January, 2016.
Nandlall said that the AG’s report did not implicate him or the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Legal Affairs in any wrongdoing.
The writ noted that Williams had the report from the Auditor- General since January 2016. “On several occasions over the past five months, the Attorney- General, both in jest and seriousness, indicated to me that if I continue to criticize him, publicly, he will make the issue of these books, public, obviously, in an attempt to embarrass me.
“Unfazed by such infantile intimidation, on each occasion, I told him to proceed, since I will never compromise my duty to the people of Guyana to criticize and expose executive conduct which warrant criticisms and exposure.”
The writ continued, “You will note that this disclosure by the Attorney- General has come upon the heels of my statement in the press in response to GECOM’s Press Release on the legal position in respect of the local authority organs where they have been tied seats….Over the last few months, whenever the Claimant criticizes the Defendant, the Defendant would repeat the self-same scandalous allegation, accusing the Claimant of dishonesty and legal impropriety in relation to, the said Law Reports.”
The court was told that Nandlall believes that unless retrained, Williams will continue to repeat the “said defamatory remarks of and concerning the Applicant.”
The “publications complained of are false and malicious and the truth is very much known to the Respondent…the Respondent is motivated by ill-will, spite and malice. The publications complained of are causing and have caused grave and substantial damage to the good character, professional standing and political stature of the Applicant.”

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