Ramjattan to pay Charrandas Persaud $7M for defamation

Charrandas Persaud who is now Guyana’s High Commissioner to India has won a defamation suit against Opposition Parliamentarian Khemraj Ramjattan who has been ordered by the High Court to pay damages in the sum of $7 million.

Persaud had originally filed a $30 million lawsuit in 2019 against Ramjattan who was at the time the country’s Public Security Minister.

The former government parliamentarian at the time, in 2018, voted in favour of a no-confidence motion brought by the then People’s Progressive Party Civic opposition.

He claimed Ramjattan defamed him by claiming that he was paid for his vote.

High Court Judge Jo-Ann Barlow in handing down the judgment also ordered Ramjattan to refrain from making statements that suggest that Persaud was in any way compensated financially for his vote in the No-Confidence Motion.

There were several newspaper articles presented in Court documents which included a statement attributed to Ramjattan in a December 2018 edition of the Guyana Chronicle, titled “Cops closing in on Charrandas” and a Stabroek News edition of January 2019, “Ramjattan: Charrandas Persaud is a villain not a hero.”

It also drew attention to statements made by Ramjattan on Globe Span 24×7 talk show, streamed on Facebook in February 2019.

Persaud contended that these published statements were intended to and had the effect of lowering his reputation, character, morality and honesty as an attorney at law in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public.

But Ramjattan insisted that the claims were merely attributed to him and not said by him. He said he was not the author of the articles.

But the Court could not escape the words uttered by Ramjattan on the video recordings where Ramjattan named Persaud.

One of the court’s assertions was that Ramjattan’s referral to Persaud and 30 pieces of silver, could only be taken to mean that Ramjattan was accusing the former AFC MP of taking a bribe, which was designed to slander him.

“This court in assessing this matter found that an award of $7,000,000 (seven million dollars) is appropriate in the circumstances of this case. The court further orders that the defendant do refrain from making statements that suggest that the claimant was in any way compensated financially for his role in the No-Confidence Motion. The defendant shall pay to the claimant costs in the sum of $150,000 (one hundred fifty thousand dollars) on or before 25th August 2022,” the ruling noted.

Persaud sent shockwaves throughout the country back in December 2018 when he voted emphatically in favour of the No-Confidence motion.

His vote effectively handed the People’s Progressive Party the one vote they needed to win the No-Confidence motion.

Mr Persaud represented Region Six in the National Assembly and was a member of the Alliance for Change (AFC) which joined with the coalition of five parties in APNU to contest and win the May 2015 general and regional elections.

He became a Parliamentarian in May 2015 when the new Government was sworn in.