Georgetown : Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall has maintained that the Kaieteur News has acted illegally in recording his telephone conversation with one of its staff and making it public. Minister Nandlall stated that the entire episode is being blown and twisted out of proportion with the focus being completely misplaced.
“The truth of the matter is that I was having a private conversation with a person whom I have known for a number of years, in fact we went to Queen’s College together. I was speaking about a personal matter. I did not know that the conversation was being recorded,” the Minister said. He added that the recording is obviously illegal and was never intended for the public’s ear.
Pointing out that the conversation was manipulated and twisted to sound like a completely different dialogue; he noted that the focus should be on “how that conversation was recorded and how it became public.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Ramotar also echoed the Minister’s sentiments in an interview yesterday. “Clearly what was done to the Attorney General was an illegal act, to record him without telling him that he is being recorded is illegal,” the President stated.
Pointing out that the Minister was obviously not speaking for the public, he insisted the Laws of Guyana should be respected by citizens. “The case is that he was illegally taped and manipulated and (is) being taken totally out of context,” the President added.
“What is being done is to take everything out of context,” he reiterated.
Meanwhile, yesterday Minister Nandlall slapped the Kaieteur News with a $30M lawsuit for libel contained in an article published on October 28 titled “Attorney General reveals plan to hit Glenn Lall, Kaieteur News”. The civil action filed in the High Court has named the proprietor of the Kaieteur News, Mohan ‘Glenn’ Lall and editor, Adam Harris as the defendants.
The AG is seeking damages in excess of $10M for libel contained in the headline, $10M for the libel contained in the article and aggravated/exemplary damages in the sum of $10M.
On October 27, Lall had handed over to the police, a recording of a private conversation between the AG and a senior reporter attached to the news outfit.
The Government of Guyana has since released a statement strongly condemning the newspaper for deliberately distorting and manipulating what the Minister had said.
“We stand by the Attorney General, as the Government of Guyana goes out of its way to foster peace and goodwill. We believe in the integrity and professionalism of the Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall, and stand by him,” the release stated.
In March, the AG sued the same news entity for $30M for public embarrassment caused by the contents of two articles in the newspaper’s popular “Dem Boys Seh” column.
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