Roget wins defamation case against Moonilal

OILFIELDS Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) president Ancel Roget says he is prepared to take legal action against anyone who makes defamatory statements about him.

On December 17, Justice Nadia Kangaloo ruled that statements made by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal in 2015, in response to a budgetary allocation of $15 million to the trade union movement, were defamatory.

The court awarded Roget $500,000 in damages.

A statement on January 3 from the OWTU said, “Comrade Roget is prepared to take legal action against anyone who, publicly, including on social media, perpetuates that defamatory statement about the $15m or any other defamatory, misleading and untrue statements.”

Moonilal’s statement was made at a political meeting in November 2015.

The announcement of the budgetary allocation garnered wide attention, the OWTU said. Two days after the budget presentation, Roget wrote to Finance Minister Colm Imbert on behalf of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), telling him the umbrella body would not be accepting any part of or in whole the allocated $15 million.

“Comrade Roget’s rejection of the Government's allocation was immediately circulated widely in both the electronic and in the three daily newspapers.

“Further, his rejection of the government’s allocated sum was reported to Parliament by the Minister of Finance on October 13, 2015, during the budget debate.”

The release said when the $15 million offer was made, Roget was the first to reject it.

“Comrade Roget has always stated publicly that he never accepted or received any money, and certainly not $15 million from the PNM government. This judgment is crucial as it clears Comrade Roget’s name.”

The OWTU said Roget also served Dr Morgan Job with a pre-action letter for making similar statements but the legal action against the former UNC minister could not be pursued after Job died.

Douglas Mendes, SC, Anthony Bullock and Leah Abdulah represented Roget. Larry Lalla, SC, represented Moonilal.

Contacted for comment, Moonilal said his legal team was awaiting the court's written judgment, after which he could comment in detail.

"I can say that we have decided to appeal. It appears that I can only get justice in the Court of Appeal or (at the Privy Council in) London. This matter will be appealed, since we believe the judge erred in both law and fact.

"We reserve our right to amend an appeal once the written ruling is made available.

"My lawyers have advised that I have a very good appeal because of the judge’s errors in dealing with what was political speech and they are presently preparing the appeal for filing."