Lawyer calls for $2.4M in libel case — judgment reserved

To call a policeman a murderer, especially when a country is under siege, is a serious libel against the particular policeman and the Police Service when not proven and could undermine public confidence in the Police Service, contended Senior Counsel Israel Khan, as he asked a court to award damages in sums of $600,000 each to four policemen who have sued the Express newspaper for libel. Khan argued that the four policemen, Rommel Morales, Ricardo Matas, Anthony Williams and former Constable Peter Ramdhan, were called murderers by the newspaper, following a shootout between the policemen and two men who were killed.

Inviting Justice Humphrey Stollmeyer to find that the policemen were seriously libelled, Khan said that if a national newspaper was to print that a Catholic priest is sexually molesting his acolytes under his charge and that proves to be false, then it is a very serious libel against the particular priest and the Catholic Church. Likewise,  it  would be the same case if such a thing should happen to a Muslim priest, a kindergarten teacher who is accused of molesting her children, or a well-known Senior Counsel who is accused of shooting at a Chief Justice’s home because he did not like the way the CJ dealt with a certain matter, or policemen accused of murdering.  

Assuming that the court finds in favour of the four policemen, Khan suggested to Justice Stollmeyer to break new ground in the awarding of damages and ordered damages in the sums of $600,000 each. Khan, who leads Larry Lalla and Dawn Mohan in the matter, recalled the libel case of Ken Gordon and Basdeo Panday, in which the Court of Appeal indicated that libel awards in TT have been too conservative over the years and signalled to judges that libel awards should be in keeping with the modern trends, compensating libelled persons with appropriate and fair monetary compensation.

Khan said that a person’s reputation is an integral and important part of the dignity of that  individual. And in a democratic society, it is the basis which on one would decide whom to employ or work for, to do business with or vote for. But once this reputation is besmirched by an unfounded allegation in a national newspaper, it could be damaged forever. Representing the newspaper were Alvin Fitzpatrick and Faarees Hosein. Justice Stollmeyer has reserved his judgment.