Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall yesterday awarded damages and costs to the tune of more than $10 million to be paid by retired Assistant Commis-sioner of Police Paul Slowe to Head of the Spe-cial Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Fazil Karimbaksh for libel.
Karimbaksh had filed a $70m lawsuit against Slowe for the libel in March 2022.
Justice Morris-Ramlall also issued a permanent injunction preventing Slowe from publishing any further defamatory words concerning Karimbaksh, according to a release from the police force.
Karimbaksh, through his attorneys, C.V. Satram and Ron Motilall, complained that Slowe made several false and defamatory statements about him on his Facebook and YouTube pages between November 2, 2021, to January 12, 2022.
The judge found that Slowe made libellous statements against Karimbaksh on 2nd & 22nd November, 2021; 22nd and 29th December, 2021 and 5th and 12th January, 2022 on his social media platforms, Facebook and Youtube.
She therefore ordered the Defendant to pay to the claimant general damages in the sum of $10,000,000 for the said libel and issued an injunction restraining the Defendant from further publishing or continuing to publish the statements contained in the said publications or any similar statements.
The Defendant shall also pay to the Claimant costs in the sum of $300,000 on or before the 28th July, 2024.
In the ruling , the judge said that Claimant was clearly identified by name and otherwise in the publications and, in any event, it has not been disputed that he was the person referred to. Additionally, the publications were made on the worldwide web and were therefore made to persons other than the Claimant. It has also been established that the statements were published by the defendant.
The judge said that on 22nd November 2021, the Defendant broadcasted remarks which accused the Claimant of being unqualified for the office held at SOCU and ineligible for promotion.
“I am of the view that these words are defamatory as they impute that the Defendant serves in his office without required qualifications. It is implied that the Claimant by some artifice, ruse or stratagem infiltrated this office as head of SOCU while being ill-equipped and ineligible” the judge said.
Further, on 22nd December 2021, she said the Defendant broadcast remarks which accused the Claimant of a litany of ills.
“I find that the words are defamatory as they impute that the Defendant is incompetent and subject to the directives and mandates of the government of the day due to his alleged incompetence. It transmits improper and corrupt motives for conducting arrests and by inuendo imputes some sort of moral turpitude”, the judge said.
On 29th December 2021, the Defendant once again broadcasted remarks which accused the Clai-mant of misconduct. I find that the words are defamatory as they impute that the Defendant made inappropriate overtures to women which were reported and that the complainants were subject to retribution at the hands or instigation of the Claimant. This suggests that the Claimant was guilty of inappropriate behaviour towards female ranks under his command, the judge stated.
Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes represented Slowe.
