Judiciary denounces Facebook posts on Aboud

The Judiciary is calling on the administrators of a Facebook page to remove a photo, apologise to a judge and remove a post accompanying the photo.

The man in the photo is referred to as Justice James Aboud, who ruled last Thursday that a matter involving the state-owned Estate Management Business Development Company and several contrators could proceed. The contractors were seeking to have the cases against them dismissed.

The post to which the Judiciary referred commented on Aboud's impartiality. It had been shared from another Facebook page, belonging to an individual.

The release from the Judiciary said: “The Judiciary calls on the administrators of the site to remove the offensive image immediately and apologise to Justice Aboud. Members of the public are again called upon to desist from character assassination and other forms of misinformation that are only meant, unfortunately, to skew public opinion.”

Several people commented to tell the administrators that the man in the photo, who was said to be pictured at a PNM fund-raising event, was not Aboud, but the post was not taken down as a result. It generated 98 comments and had been shared 121 times. Six people were angry at the post, 56 liked it, 37 were shocked by it, one person was saddened and 15 laughed at the post.