ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Attorneys for Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit have filed a lawsuit for libel against a former employee of the International Monetary (IMF) over statements made regarding the island’s economic citizenship programme.
Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan said that apart from economist Thomson Fontaine, the Prime Minister has also taken action against the broadcaster, West Indies Communication Enterprises Limited.
“We have decided as a matter of policy and purposefulness to join the owners of Q95 FM in this because the time has come for us to make the question of the responsibility of the radio programmes a landmark issue for the courts to decide,” Astaphan told a news conference Friday.
Skerrit claimed he had been libelled by remarks made by Fontaine, who also writes a blog and is the owner of the site Dominica .Net “that has in recent times published a number of serious allegations of criminality and corruption designed to degenerate and attack “him and the Dominica government.
In his claim, Skerrit said that Fontaine published a series of emails, articles and also made statements on a radio programme in November alleging the sale of a Dominican passport to a foreigner.
The Prime Minister is seeking “aggravated damages” for libel as well as an injunction restraining the defendants or their agents from publishing the defamatory words.
Astaphan said the Prime Minister, who is also seeking costs, had originally asked Fontaine to apologise and retract the allegations but that he had refused and that Fontaine insists the claims were true and was willing to go to court.
“That is confidence that is coming out of a sense of nervousness or delusion because we have access to all the information, we have access to all the communication with all the regional and international and other authorities and governments that this matter has been discussed with,” Astaphan told reporters.
