ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr Mohabir Anil Nandlall, through his lawyer Sase Gunraj, yesterday called on Stabroek News to issue a retraction of a letter penned by Christopher Ram and published under the caption ‘It is the President’s duty alone to appoint three members of the Judicial Service Commission’.In a letter addressed to Stabroek News editor Anand Persaud, a copy of which has been seen by the Guyana Chronicle, Gunraj proposes legal proceedings.

Ram’s has allegedly said that Nandlall is careless about details; cavalier about the constitution and the law; mischievous and obfuscatory; irresponsible; unfamiliar with basic provisions of the Constitution of Guyana; and guilty of a grave dereliction of duty.

Gunraj contends that Ram’s letter, in its natural and ordinary meaning, is understood to say that Nandlall is: incompetent; guilty of dereliction of his duty as principal legal adviser to the President and the Government of Guyana; wilfully and deliberately misleading the President, the Government of Guyana, and the citizens of Guyana; and is unfit to hold either the office of Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, or a seat as a Member of Parliament (MP).

Mr Gunraj’s letter said: “Please be informed that the aforesaid allegations are not only libellous, but are reckless and accentuated by malice, and have caused my client great public ridicule, odium, contempt, embarrassment, humiliation both locally and internationally, and have caused disparagement to the offices of Attorney General, Minister of Legal Affairs, and Member of Parliament, which he holds.

“In the circumstances, I am instructed to demand, as I hereby do, that you do publish a retraction of the libellous statements of and concerning my client, along with an unreserved apology, giving same equal or greater prominence than that enjoyed by the libellous statements.”

The Stabroek News has been given seven days to publish a retraction of Chris Ram’s letter, or face legal proceedings.
By Vanessa Narine