Judge grants ex-Pres. Donald Ramotar $20M judgment against Kaieteur News

Mar 13, 2021 News

---

Kaieteur/Canje Oil Blocks sign away case….

Kaieteur News – Justice, Navindra Singh, yesterday granted judgment in favour of ex-President, Donald Ramotar, in the libel suit he brought against Kaieteur News and its publisher, Glenn Lall, over publications related to the signing away of the Kaieteur and Canje Oil Blocks.
According to the decision, which was handed down over Ramotar’s defamation claims, the damages were assessed in the sum of $20M, which includes an assessment of aggravated damages.
The Court also awarded interest on the said award at the rate of 6% per annum from June 26th, 2019 to March 12th, 2021 and 4% per annum thereafter, until fully paid. The Court awarded the sum of $2.4M as prescribed costs to the Claimant (Ramotar) against the Defendants (Kaieteur News and Glenn Lall), jointly and severally.
It was also pointed out that should the newspaper and its owner fail to comply with the order of the High Court, the publisher would be found in contempt of the court and may be liable for imprisonment or have his assets confiscated. Already, Lall has indicated his intention to appeal the judgment.The libel suit is as a result of several publications, which asserted that Ramotar “signed away the Oil Blocks to four companies who know nothing about oil.”
The full judgment released yesterday, outlined that the newspaper carried several publications in June 2019, some of which contained images of bandits and asserted that Ramotar secretly transferred oil blocks to unknown persons. Other articles gave the impression that the former Head of State and others took all of the good oil blocks and signed them away to individuals who had no experience in the industry.
The newspaper had compared the transaction approved by Ramotar to the corrupt deals of Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade. This piece had carried the caption “Wake up GUYANA cat eating yuh din-naa!!”
It is on those grounds that Ramotar complained to the Court that he was being maliciously targeted and defamed through the newspaper, which enjoys national and international circulation through physical distribution and electronic means via the World Wide Web.
Added to that, the claimant noted that Kaieteur News had called on its readers to tune into the Kaieteur Radio to further learn about the comparison that was being advanced.
The radio broadcasts on Kaieteur Radio discussed the meaning of the published articles [intended for any reasonable person to conclude that reference was being made to the ex-President].
Kaieteur News and its publisher, Glenn Lall, had initially pleaded the defence of fair comment.
During the trial, however, the Court found that the newspaper, through its attorney, Nigel Hughes, failed to inter alia, to prove its claims. It noted that there was no evidence to show that the former President acted in a corrupt manner when he granted the licence or that he was in fact connected to the entities that received the licences.
The document pointed out that Ramotar admitted that as the President of Guyana, he signed two (2) agreements granting two (2) Petroleum Prospecting Licences for the purpose of carrying out prospecting operations in what are known as the Kaieteur and Canje Blocks.
Ramotar testified that at the time of the signing of the agreements there was no confirmed commercial petroleum discovery in those blocks.
He explained the various reasons and thought processes that guided the signing of the agreement, such as the fact that there was a territorial dispute by Venezuela over the area, the fact that there was difficulty historically in generating interest in oil companies in the area, and the fact that the agreements were signed following applications by those companies being approved by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
On the other hand, the judgment indicated Kaieteur News’ Publisher disputed Ramotar’s assertion that “no oil was discovered at the time of the signing of the agreements but he did not lead any evidence to show otherwise.”
Lall testified that the two agreements signed by Ramotar gave the contracting companies “exclusive rights to explore, develop and produce petroleum in an area of Guyana described therein as Canje Block and Kaieteur Block.”
Among other things, the Court document noted that Mr. Lall testified that the images in the publications were intended to be images of bandits and/or thieves and that he intended to convey that Ramotar took part of “the US$100M,” and that he secretly collected monies in corrupt deals.
Further, it was pointed out that Lall used his testimony in Court to continue to cast aspersions on the claimant’s character, knowing that they were not in possession of evidence to substantiate same.
In its ruling, the Court found “The defendants have not apologized or expressed any regret over the publication of the libel, in fact, Mr. Glenn Lall…further used the witness box to make statements attacking the Claimant’s character, to wit, ‘I am saying that Donald is a corrupt man,’ and ‘I am calling for Ramotar to be investigated for corruption and crime against the people of Guyana’.”
As such, in processing the appropriate quantum of damages in this case, the Court took into consideration that the libel attacked Ramotar’s personal integrity and professional reputation; that he was and is a very public figure who served in the highest public office of the land; that the nature of the libel was bound to cause distress; hurt and humiliation to him; and of course that it is a well established and accepted fact that material published on the world wide web is available for public consumption for eternity.

---

---