Former Congress of the People (COP) political leader Prakash Ramadhar is appealing the decision of a High Court judge who ordered him to pay $255,000 in compensation to his estranged brother and two other COP members for defamation.
Chief Justice Ivor Archie and appellate judges Gregory Smith and Prakash Moosai yesterday reserved their decision in the appeal after hearing submissions from Ramadhar’s attorneys and those for his brother Kishore, Rudolph Hanamji and Satu-Ann Ramcharan.
A date for their decision will be announced by the court over the next few weeks.
In his appeal, Ramadhar is claiming that Justice Vasheist Kokaram misinterpreted his statements when he ruled that he (Ramadhar) had defamed the trio in December last year.
Ramadhar is also contending that Kokaram did not properly consider the defences to defamation, ie, rely to an attack and fair comment, which were raised by his attorneys during the trial of the case last year.
The lawsuit arose out of a controversy in October 2013 in which the trio were accused of sending a letter with information about the COP’s membership to the then Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).
The letter stated that three members who contested the last Local Government elections were not members of the COP, as legally required.
The PNM subsequently wrote to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) challenging the membership of the candidates.
Kishore, Hanamji and Ramcharan, who were suspended from the party’s national executive and national council, denied any wrongdoing as they claimed their signatures had been forged on the leaked document.
Ramadhar, former COP chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, and founding member, Iqbal Hydal, were all accused of making defamatory statements on the issue at a COP National Council meeting on November 10, 2013.
All three were sued by the trio and were each ordered by Kokaram to pay compensation. However, only Ramadhar has appealed the decision.
Ramadhar was ordered to pay his brother $90,000; the same amount to Hanamji and $75,000 to Ramcharan.
Seepersad-Bachan was ordered to pay Kishore Ramadhar $75,000; the same amount to Hanamji and $50,000 to Ramcharan while Hydal was ordered to pay $25,000 to Kishore Ramdhar; the same sum to Hanamji and $20,000 to Ramcharan.
Ramadhar was represented by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, Larry Lalla and Michael Rooplal. The trio was represented by Frederick Gilkes, Mervyn Campbell and Yuri Saunders.