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  • 2 years ago
Defeat in the High Court today for Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal.

He filed a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Rowley, the Express newspaper and the paper's Editor in Chief.

It was based on the contents of an Express story from 2020.

But, on Wednesday the court ruled the statements in question were not defamatory.
Transcript
00:00On January 6, 2020, the Express newspaper ran a story with an alleged exchange of text
00:07messages between Prime Minister Rawley and Fixin TNT's Kirk Waithe.
00:12According to court documents, the story included the words, thievery of many UNC operatives
00:18and the questions Munilal and Jalene have to answer.
00:24MP Dr. Rudal Munilal took offence and filed a defamation lawsuit against the Prime Minister,
00:31the Express and its Editor-in-Chief, Omer T. Lida.
00:35Court documents say Dr. Munilal claimed two sentences which the Prime Minister saw fit
00:40to publish to Waithe and which the paper saw fit to publish were defamatory of him, Dr.
00:47Munilal.
00:48The defendant said Dr. Munilal failed to establish that the defamatory statements were spoken
00:52of and concerning him, and that the words are incapable of being understood in the manner
00:59contended.
01:01In a ruling delivered on Wednesday, Justice Carol Gobbin said the case was based on two
01:06sentences, neither of which standing alone can be understood as defamatory, and that
01:12no sequencing could make the two separate sentences produce a different result.
01:18She dismissed the case with costs and said she believes it should be costs on the prescribed
01:23scale, but she'll give the party seven days to indicate any other view.
01:29Anselm Gibbs, TV6 News.
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