Outlandish social media talk show host, Mikhail Rodrigues aka “Guyanese Critic” has been found guilty of contempt of Court and has been ordered to pay a fine of $100,000 within seven days or face three days in jail. Additionally, he has been ordered by the High Court to issue a public apology to the Court for his actions.

Rodrigues was cited for contempt of Court after he live-streamed sections of a Court hearing to his social media pages without any permission from the Court.

The incident took place on the 30th August during a hearing of the lawsuit filed against Rodrigues by former Government Minister, Simona Broomes for defamation of character.

When the matter was called, both Rodrigues and his Attorney, Sanjeev Datadin were absent from the Courtroom.

The Court was informed that the Attorney was out of the country, but a request was made for another Attorney and the defendant, Mikhail Rodrigues to join the matter virtually. The Court granted the permission.

However, when Rodrigues and his Attorney joined the matter virtually via the ZOOM platform, Rodrigues was on his live online morning talk show, and rather than bring an end to the show, he continued the show and started to air sections of the Court’s proceedings to his audience.

The Court was informed of the live broadcast after the hearing was completed and immediately issued a summons to Rodrigues for him to appear and show cause why he should not be held in contempt.

In answer to the summons through his Attorney, Rodrigues told the Court that he was unaware that his actions were wrong and against the law and offered an apology.

The Court however noted that throughout the live broadcast, Rodrigues told his viewers to be quiet and even ignored warnings that his actions were in contempt of the Court.

Rodrigues has since accepted that he was guilty of being in contempt of Court and accepted that his actions were a violation of the law.

The Court today ordered that he pays the fine of $100,000 before the 9th September or face 3 days in jail. Additionally, he has been ordered to issue a public apology on his show and to also issue a public apology on his website.

The matter was heard by Justice Prescilla Chandra-Hanif.

The substantial Court matter is set to continue at a later date. With regards to that matter, Rodrigues has also offered an apology to former Government Minister Simona Broomes for his defamatory statement and has been attempting to get her to settle the matter.

Related posts:

“Guyanese Critic” Mikhil Rodrigues ordered to pay Mohameds $52 Million in defamation judgement Former Linden Hospital CEO issues public apology to nurses over “sweet man” statement as ordered by Court Court orders former Linden Hospital CEO to pay nurses $20M in damages and issue public apology over “sleep out with sweet man” statement If AG was in contempt of Court, Judge knew what to do and didn’t do it -Pres. Granger