Commander of ‘A‘ Division George Vyphuis has filed a $20 million lawsuit against Mark Benschop for allegedly attributing false statements to him on a website and publishing damaging information about him.
The legal action stemmed from a photograph and caption which appeared on the guyanaobservernews.org website, managed by Benschop, in addition to public statements Benschop made about Vyphuis. The Commander also took umbrage with an article published on the website.
Vyphuis and Benschop were featured in a photograph on the website in November last year and the accompanying caption had said the Commander was apologizing to Benschop for a past arrest and that he also commented on the PPP’s conduct in office.
Vyphuis had criticized the photo caption in a letter to the press but he recently moved to the High Court for injunctive relief and damages, saying that Benschop went on to make damaging statements about him after he publicly explained what they were discussing when the photograph was taken.
Vyphuis is seeking an injunction restraining Benschop from further publication of the alleged damaging information. “The caption and content of the publication is wholly false and libelous and is designed to mislead the public, damage my character and reputation and adversely affect my image publicly and in the eyes of my fellow policemen, including gravely diminishing the perception of my professionalism in the eyes of my superior officers and functional superiors and colleagues, additionally it will no doubt lower me in the eyes of right thinking members of society,” Vyphuis said in court documents filed by his attorney, Sanjeev Datadin.
In an affidavit in support of his ex-parte application, Vyphuis repeated earlier statements on the issue, saying Benschop approached him in the Brickdam police station compound about a matter involving a few persons at Soesdyke and at the time of the exchange newspaper columnist Freddie Kissoon took the photograph.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police said Benschop later made false statements about being threatened by him.
In addition, he said Benschop responded to his public statements on the issue by making further allegations. Vyphuis also referred to an article published on the website which featured his photograph. He called the article libelous. The matter comes up for hearing in chambers today in the High Court.
