In a landmark ruling, Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire on Friday declared legal defamatory libel unconstitutional, delivering a big victory for freedom of expression and dismissing the long-standing case in opposition to New York-based Guyanese political activist Rickford Burke.
Chief Justice George-Wiltshire dominated that Part 115 of the Legal Legislation Offences Act, together with conspiracy to commit such an offence, violates Article 146 of the Structure, which ensures the correct to freedom of expression.
“It’s declared that the resort to legal defamatory libel to guard particular person repute is pointless, disproportionately extreme and never justified and or required to guard reputations, rights and freedoms of different individuals and are unconstitutional as being in violation of Article 146 which is the liberty of expression provision in our structure,” she stated.
The cost of legal defamatory libel dated again to December 3, 2021, when the Guyana Police Power (GPF) issued a wished bulletin for Burke underneath a number of acts, together with the Racial Hostility Act, Cyber Crime Act, and the Legal Legislation Offences Act. A second bulletin adopted on September 29, 2022, this time for conspiracy to commit a felony. Costs had been formally filed on August 18, 2023, on the Vigilance Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom, although Burke by no means appeared. The courtroom later ordered a “defendant summons” to compel his attendance.
Burke, who was represented by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, has lengthy denied being correctly served. In an announcement in the course of the Excessive Courtroom proceedings, Richard Millington, director of communications for the Caribbean Guyana Institute of Democracy (CGID), issued a scathing response.
“The Guyana Police Power is engaged in egregious lies, severe unlawful conduct and fraudulent actions,” stated Millington.
“Mr. Burke was by no means served with a doc and didn’t signal for or settle for a doc,” he added, alleging that “gunmen left items of paper on Mr. Burke’s steps, which had been retrieved and brought as proof by the NYPD (New York Police Division).”
Chief Justice George-Wiltshire emphasised that she was obligated to contemplate worldwide human rights requirements underneath Article 39, noting widespread criticism of legal defamation. She identified that Grenada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago have already abolished legal libel legal guidelines, thanks largely to advocacy from journalists and media watchdogs.
The Chief Justice additionally raised considerations concerning the procedural integrity of the case. She questioned the authorized foundation of claiming Burke, who has lived in the USA for 27 years, dedicated an offence in Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, because the cost alleged.
“If this was disclosed to the Justice of the Peace, then she probably would have declined to have the summonses issued underneath her hand,” the Chief Justice stated.
The courtroom heard that Assistant Superintendent of Police Rodwell Sarabo tried to serve the summonses to Burke in the USA in December 2023 with the assistance of a U.S. course of server. When Burke allegedly refused to simply accept the paperwork, they had been left on his doorstep. Nonetheless, Justice George-Wiltshire famous that the state had not offered immigration information or different proof to problem Burke’s U.S. residency.
In quashing the Guyana Police Power’s effort to serve the summons overseas, she clarified that:
“Due to this fact, the summons solely has efficacy inside the geographical boundaries of Guyana. Service of a summons outdoors the jurisdiction of Guyana signifies that such service could be illegal and subsequently invalid,” she stated.
Justice George-Wiltshire added that even when the service resembled civil process, its validity would nonetheless rely upon the principles of courtroom. The Guyana Press Affiliation (GPA) and the Inter-American Press Institute (IAPI) have lengthy lobbied for the repeal of legal defamation legal guidelines, and this choice marks a big step ahead for press freedom and political expression within the area.
