Rickford Burke, president of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), welcomed the dismissal of the defamatory libel prices in opposition to him by Guyana’s Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire late Friday, June 20.
Earlier Friday, the justice dominated that legal defamatory libel is unconstitutional and violates the enshrined proper to freedom of expression.
“I thank the court docket for this historic ruling,” Burke advised Caribbean Life. “The judgment of the Chief Justice is sound and unassailable. It units a brand new precedent in the complete Commonwealth jurisprudence that vitiates overreach by autocratic governments to restrict dissent and free speech.”
Burke charged that the incumbent Individuals’s Progressive Occasion (PPP) Authorities in Guyana “has been abusing the Guyana Police Pressure and the legal guidelines of Guyana to intimidate, persecute and assassinate the character of Guyanese overseas who categorical dissent, expose their racism and corruption.
“I have been utterly exonerated,” Burke exclaimed. “The lies, fabrications, and legal conspiracy by the PPP authorities to border me have been uncovered by the court docket.
“Anil Nandlall (Guyana Lawyer Common) is a nationwide shame and a humiliation to Guyana,” he additional charged. “He should resign in disgrace.”
Burke thanked his attorneys for “a splendid job arguing this matter earlier than the court docket, which produced a landmark ruling.
“Together, we created historical past within the Commonwealth jurisprudence and additional afield,” he added.
Burke, a staunch critic of the PPP Authorities, was represented by Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde and former Justice of the Peace Daybreak Cush.
On Friday, Chief Justice George-Wiltshire dominated that Part 115 of the Prison Regulation Offences Act, which incorporates conspiracy to commit such an offence, is “unconstitutional as violating Article 146, which ensures freedom of expression.
“It is said that the resort to legal defamatory libel to guard particular person popularity 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 dominated.
On Dec. 3, 2021, the Guyana Police Pressure (GPF) issued a wished bulletin for Burke, citing offences below numerous acts, together with the Racial Hostility Act, Cyber Crime Act, and Prison Regulation Offences Act.
On Sept. 29, 2022, the Pressure issued one other wished bulletin for Burke, citing Conspiracy to Commit a Felony below the Prison Regulation (Offences) Act.
On Aug. 18, 2023, the prosecution formally filed prices in opposition to Burke on the Vigilance Justice of the Peace’s Court docket. Nevertheless, Burke, who resides in Brooklyn, didn’t seem in court docket.
In response, the Justice of the Peace ordered the preparation of a “defendant summons” to compel Burke’s attendance on March 28, 2024.
In her ruling on Friday, Justice George-Wiltshire stated she was compelled to contemplate human rights conventions and studying in accordance with Article 39, a lot of which have criticized legal defamation.
She stated a number of Caribbean nations, together with Grenada, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago, have abolished legal defamatory libel after lobbying, particularly by journalists.
Justice George-Wiltshire questioned how Burke, who has been residing in america for the previous 27 years, might have dedicated the offence in Lusignan, East Coast Demerara.
She stated it was evident that the prosecution didn’t inform Justice of the Peace Fabayo Azore that Burke was not in Guyana and couldn’t have been at Lusignan as acknowledged within the cost.
“If this was disclosed to the Justice of the Peace, then she more than likely would have declined to have issued the summonses issued below her hand,” the Chief Justice stated.
She stated the Justice of the Peace admitted to Burke’s competition that the summons is just efficient throughout the jurisdiction of Guyana, including it does seem that what was accomplished was extra akin to service of civil proceedings and, even then, whether or not such service is suitable relies on the principles of court docket.
In her judgment, Chief Justice George-Wiltshire held that the specter of state motion by way of legal legislation quantities to overreach.
Simply earlier than Friday’s court docket ruling, Burke claimed that Trump administration officers “have taken up the matter and have demanded that the PPP Authorities clarify why US sovereignty was violated by a aware resolution of the Authorities of Guyana to ship a Guyana Police officer to New York to commit a number of crimes; together with violating US Immigration legislation, and unlawfully buying an unlawful gun, which was brandished at Burke at his residence.
“CGID has persistently demanded that officers within the PPP Authorities concerned on this conspiracy to violate US legislation be sanctioned for violating US sovereignty and committing transnational repression crimes,” Burke stated.
