‘Pitbull’ goes after ‘World Boss’ for defamation

Opposition MP Wilmoth Daniel has followed through on his threat to sue Prime Minister Gaston Browne for allegedly defaming his name. The lawsuit was filed in the High Court on Thursday, and PM Browne was given a copy of the claim yesterday morning.
Daniel’s lawyer, Charlesworth Tabor confirmed this to OBSERVER media. The lawsuit comes two weeks after Daniel demanded an apology from PM Browne and threatened to sue him if he did not do so within the 14-day deadline given by Tabor. The PM issued an apology of sorts, which Daniel rejected. Tabor specifies that the comments defaming his client, were made during a crosstalk in the Parliament Building on January 2, after the Speaker of the House, Sir Gerald Watt, had suspended the sitting due to a disruption in electricity.
The attorney said that the allegations reportedly made by PM Browne were therefore not under the protection of parliamentary immunity, since the Speaker had already suspended the session. The claim states, “There were quite a number of people in the public gallery of Parliament and they remained there awaiting the resumption of the sitting … These words were uttered in the Parliamentary Chamber and were thereby published to all those who were present in the Chamber on the 2nd day of January, 2018.”
The lawyer argues that the words complained of directly referred to and would have been understood to refer to MP Daniel, whose name was also called. “In their natural and ordinary meaning the words complained of meant and were understood to mean that the Claimant is guilty…” the claim contends. The specific alleged defamatory words by PM Browne, whose supporters recently gave him the name “World Boss”, cannot be published since this would amount to the same offence of which Daniel is complaining.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)