Court denies stay of $7.5m libel judgment against Nadir

Manzoor Nadir, Speaker of the National Assembly and host of the conference

Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, has been denied the stay he was hoping for of  a $7.5 million judgment imposed against him for defaming former diplomat and board member of Guyana Power & Light (GPL), Kirk Hollingsworth.

According to a press statement from Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who represents Hollingsworth, Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud, on Wednesday refused Nadir’s application for a stay of execution of the judgment.

Forde said in his statement that the Judge in refusing the stay, concluded that there were no prospects of the appeal succeeding; while going on to find that on the face of the pleading before the trial court, “the defamatory statements were reckless and riddled with defamatory imputations.”