Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Senior Superintendent Fazil Karimbaksh has filed a $70 million libel suit against retired Assistant Commissioner of Police and former Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Paul Slowe whom he says has made certain defamatory statements against him.
High Court Judge Navindra Singh has since granted Karimbaksh an injunction which prohibits Slowe from making any further publications regarding him. That order, however, expired last Friday.
It is unclear whether Karimbaksh has made an application to extend the order made by Justice Singh.
In his suit dated February 8th, 2022, Karimbaksh says that following Slowe’s arraignment on sexual assault and fraud charges in October of last year, he (Slowe) shortly thereafter created and began operating Facebook and YouTube pages called “Speaking Out: Exposing Corruption and Incompetence.”
Karimbaksh (the Claimant), accuses Slowe (the Defendant), of creating the social media pages “for the sole purpose of launching character attacks” on the police officers investigating the criminal matters against him which are still pending before the court.
According to the Claimant, since creating the social media pages, the Defendant regularly publishes and causes to be published, defamatory materials about and concerning him, referencing a November 2nd, 2021 publication.
Karimbaksh said that there have been a number of other defamatory publications by Slowe spanning November of last year to January of this year, which cast aspersions on his integrity, competence and professionalism.
According to Karimbaksh, the various publications he complains of have caused and continue to cause injury to his reputation; from which he says he has suffered “considerable hurt, distress and embarrassment.”
He says he has been exposed to “reputational injury and hurt” and continues to be demeaned in the eyes of his peers and subordinate ranks of the Guyana Police Force; while stating that the publications in questions “were calculated to, and did in fact cause” his authority to be questioned.
He is seeking a total of $70 million in damages against Slowe.
The Claimant is being represented by attorney Chandrapratesh Satram.
