Charles Ceres wins libel suit against Guyana Times

Dec 12, 2019 News

Businessman and prominent engineer, Charles Ceres, was yesterday granted judgment against the Guyana Times newspapers. In a libel suit claiming in excess of $200M in damages, Ceres and his wife, Ndibi Schweirs, said that the media outfit published misinformation about land acquired by them based on claims made by Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo during his press conference.

Prominent Engineer, Charles Ceres

Lawyer Darren Wade

Apart from Guyana Times, Ceres had named the Kaieteur News and Jagdeo as respondents in the court action. When the case continued yesterday before Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln at the High Court in Demerara, judgment was granted in Ceres’s favour. This was after Guyana Times Inc., and its Editor, Tusika Martin, failed to file an affidavit in answer to the businessman’s claim.
Having been satisfied that the requirements of Civil Procedure Rule 12:02 were satisfied, Justice Corbin-Lincoln awarded judgment in default of defence against Guyana Times Inc., and its Editor. As it is, Ceres has to file witness statements in the form of affidavits upon which he intends to rely for assessment of damages which is fixed for April 15, 2020.
As it is, the case against Jagdeo and Kaieteur News is continuing. Jagdeo during a press conference had accused Ceres of obtaining several hundred acres of lands in Regions Six. The Leader of the Opposition had also spoke of another plot of land at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, for which no further details were provided.
In the statement of claim filed by their lawyer, Darren Wade, Ceres and his wife are seeking damages in excess of $200 M from Jagdeo for statements he made for claiming that Schweirs, through her husband, obtained public lands at Canje Creek, Bohemia and Liliendaal by corrupt, illegal and criminal means.The parties are also seeking damages in excess of $200M for the publishing of the unsubstantiated and defamatory statements via the People’s Progressive Party’s FaceBook page and Youtube channels.
The applicants are also seeking in excess of $200M each from News publications, Kaieteur News and Guyana Times for publishing articles based on Jagdeo’s claims that the couple might have obtained the said lands via immoral, improper, illegal and criminal means. In addition to the sum worth in damages, Ceres and his wife are also seeking retractions and apologies from the news outlets.
In response to Ceres’s lawsuit, Jagdeo in court documents said he is politically, legally and constitutionally enjoined and duty bound to speak out and condemn acts of corruption, nepotism and cronyism involving government and public officers.
In fact, Jagdeo, in an Affidavit in Defence, said that he has the legal right to hold these officials to public scrutiny and to reveal and inform the public of executive excesses, abuse of power, mismanagement, incompetence in public offices, as well as the misuse of state resources.
Added to that, Jagdeo said that he further has the legal right to speak out against, “squander mania, violations of the law and the Constitution by the government and public officers and indeed, all forms of public wrongs.” Jagdeo has submitted to the court that he will prove that most, if not all the lands, were allocated subsequent to the passage of the No-Confidence Motion.
Against this backdrop, Jagdeo contends that the allocation of the lands is “legally dubious, if not wholly unlawful.”

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