Judge orders Jagdeo to pay $40,000 cost to Knews

… as witness goes missing

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo has to reach into his pockets to pay another $40,000 after the libel case he instituted was delayed again yesterday. He had earlier been called on to pay $50,000 for another delay.
The trouble this time was that Jagdeo’s lawyers could not find Raul Kissoon, the Office of the President employee who is paid to “monitor” all the newspapers.
Jagdeo’s lead attorney, Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos, told the court that he could not account for the man’s whereabouts. The attorney further suggested to the court that Kissoon was perhaps sick, but that he was unable to say that with certainty.
At that point, De Santos asked the court for one week to “discover” the whereabouts of the witness and then proceed with the case in another week.
Strangely, Mr De Santos told the court that he was not sure who pays Raul Kissoon, but then added that he was attached to the Office of the President.  Mr De Santos himself had questioned the witness just a month ago and the witness did say he was employed at the Office of the President as a Media Officer.
Mr De Santos said that he did not have personal contact with the witness or his employers and was therefore unable to account for Kissoon’s whereabouts.
Jagdeo wants Kaieteur News columnist Freddie Kissoon, and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief and publisher to pay him a total of $10 million for alleged libel. Jagdeo claims that a column entitled “King Kong sent his goons to disrupt the conference” pointed to him (Jagdeo) as King Kong. The former President has claimed that the article suggests that he is a racist and that “by extension, the State and Government of Guyana, practice racism as an ideology, dogma, philosophy and policy.”
The Judge awarded costs to defence attorneys Nigel Hughes and Christopher Ram –$20,000 each. The Judge had before awarded cost when Jagdeo’s chief witness Dr Roger Luncheon did not show up in court.
The witness, Raul Kissoon, had previously told the court that he has compiled newspapers since June 2010. The President’s lead attorney is trying to prove that in his writings over time, Freddie Kissoon used his column in a form of “morbid obsession” to defame Jagdeo.
The Judge, Brassington Reynolds, did not agree that all of the articles could have suggested that, and he had warned that not everything that the columnist wrote could so be interpreted.
As a result, Justice Reynolds asked Jagdeo’s defence team to select the portions of the articles that relate to the case and present that to him, instead of the volume upon volume of articles.
It was that evidence that should have been examined yesterday.
The case was adjourned to April 16 and the Judge expressed hope that that is good enough time to locate the witness.