High Court Judge Fidela Corbin-Lincoln is expected to hear further arguments on Thursday before making a determination as to whether she will grant Charles Ceres an injunction he is seeking against Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, whom he has sued for libel.
Though the court had initially set yesterday to rule on the grant of the injunctive relief, it was unable to so do.
Following the in-chamber hearing, attorney Manoj Narayan, one of Jagdeo’s attorneys, told reporters that his client’s legal team only received the affidavit in reply filed by Ceres’ attorney, Darren Wade, moments before the hearing.
As a result, he said they did not have sufficient time to peruse the content of the affidavit in reply.
Given the late service of those documents, the court has set August 8th at 1.30 for continuation of legal submissions.
Following a previous court hearing, attorney Anil Nandlall by whom Jagdeo is also represented, had said that as Opposition Leader his client was qualified to speak on matters of public interest, for which he would be protected by the defence of fair comment.
Ceres, a geotechnical engineer, filed the suit against Jagdeo, alleging that the Opposition Leader distorted the manner in which he had been allocated several parcels of land.
In his statement of claim, Ceres is seeking damages in excess of $200,000,000 for various pronouncements.
Ceres is also hoping to be granted exemplary and aggravated damages in addition to court costs to be borne by Jagdeo and any other order the court may deem just to grant.
Ceres’ suit is also against the Guyana Times and Kaieteur Newspapers—via which he says Jagdeo published the libel against him.
