Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has demanded “an unqualified and proper apology” from Opposition senator Fitzgerald Hinds for stating that she did not tell the nation the truth about the Integrity Commission's probe of her.
The Senator has two weeks to issue an unqualified and proper apology, in terms to be agreed; pay a substantial sum in damages to demonstrate the baselessness of his allegations and compensate her for the injury to her reputation and the considerable distress the statements caused, as well as payment of her legal costs.
Hinds made that statement at a media conference last week. He suggested that the Prime Minister was not cleared by the Integrity Commission as she stated last month. And he produced what he said was a letter from the commission supporting his argument.
However the Prime Minister immediately wrote the commission and on August 4, 2011 received a response stating that she not under investigation as claimed by Hinds.
Now she is demanding that he apologise of face court action.
Attorneys representing Persad-Bissessar on Sunday issued a six-page pre-action protocol letter to Hinds, giving him 14 days to respond.
If Hinds fails to respond, Persad-Bissessar plans to initiate action against Hinds for damages, including exemplary and/or aggravated damages for libel and/or slander; an injunction restraining him from further publishing the statements or any similar libel/and or slander about her; and legal costs.
The Senator has two weeks to issue an unqualified and proper apology, in terms to be agreed; pay a substantial sum in damages to demonstrate the baselessness of his allegations and compensate her for the injury to her reputation and the considerable distress the statements caused, as well as payment of her legal costs.
The letter claims that the statements by Hinds lowered the prime minister in the estimation of ordinary, reasonable members of the public. The letter stated that the statements were understood to mean that Persad-Bissessar, in her capacity as prime minister:
• Is a person who is insincere, dishonest and unethical
• cannot be trusted by the press and by the national community
• deliberately misled the press and the national community by claiming that she had been exonerated by the Integrity Commission
• deliberately misled the press and the national community by claiming that the Prime Minister was not being investigated by the Integrity Commission when in fact she was so being investigated
• deliberately hid from the national community that the Integrity Commission was investigating the Prime Minister’s influencing of the award of contracts to the Gopaul family by the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP)
• is in the habit of misleading the press and the national community with lies and half truths
• has no regard for the principles of integrity in public life
• is a person who would place personal interest above the national interest and the responsibilities of her office
• is unfit for public office
• is unfit to hold the office of Prime Minister
The legal letter said the statements were made "calculatingly" and designed to bring Persad-Bissessar "into odium and disrepute in the eyes of the national and international community and that they made out of spite, hatred, ill will and malice."
The legal letter said the statements were made "calculatingly" and designed to bring Persad-Bissessar "into odium and disrepute in the eyes of the national and international community and that they made out of spite, hatred, ill will and malice."
It added, “At the time you made the said statement, you knew that the Honourable Prime Minister had been cleared by the Integrity Commission of all allegations of impropriety arising out of her stay at the Gopaul’s residence at Pasea Road, Tunapuna."
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