Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has been ordered to pay prominent businessman Charles Ceres $15 Million after the High Court found that he made defamatory statements against the businessman. Mr. Jagdeo has also been ordered to pay an additional $2.1 million in costs to the businessman.

The lawsuit stemmed from statements made by Mr. Jagdeo back in 2019 when he served as Opposition Leader, and accused the businessman of obtaining state lands illegally and through corrupt means.

There was no evidence to back up the claims.

The businessman had also filed a lawsuit against Kaieteur News and Guyana Times after both media houses carried reports on the statements by Mr. Jagdeo. However, the Court dismissed those lawsuits and Mr. Ceres will have to pay costs to those media houses.

In delivering her Judgment, Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln found that the words uttered by Mr. Jagdeo are reasonably capable of being defamatory as they conveyed that Mr. Ceres is a person who, through political connections, corrupt influence or means and insider dealings improperly and corruptly obtained state land.

She also found that the allegations are capable of lowering the reputation of Mr. Ceres  in the estimation of right-thinking members of the society and that the statements were defamatory.

The Judge said “there is no evidence that the claimant got 1297.12 acres of land in Canji Creek and 112 acres in Bohemia in 2018 and/or after the period of the no confidence motion in 2018.; and  b. There is no evidence to establish that the claimant was allocated another 5000 acres of land or that the claimant was allocated a plot of land at Liliendaal. The land at Lilliendaal was allocated to a company in which the claimant has shares”.

The Judge also ruled that Mr. Jagdeo’s defence of justification and fair comment be struck out.

Mr. Ceres was represented by Attorney-at-Law, Darren Wade, who has signaled his intention to appeal the judgment which was handed down in favor or Guyana Times and Kaieteur news.

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