Embattled People’s National Movement (PNM) financier Harry Ragoonanan has threatened to sue Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and National Security Minister Stuart Young for defamation.
Ragoonanan’s legal team yesterday served Rowley and Young with pre-action protocol letters in their roles as the party’s political leader and public relations officer, respectively.
While both letters are essentially based on the same grounds, they pertain to separate comments made about the party’s ongoing disciplinary proceedings against Ragoonanan for alleged corruption and bribery. According to the letters, which were obtained by the T&T Guardian, Young made the allegedly defamatory comments after the corruption allegations against Ragoonanan arose in PNM General Council meeting in October last year.
Rowley’s allegedly offensive comments were made at a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) function in August this year. It dealt with Ragoonanan’s participation in a press conference on the Government’s procurement of the vessels for the inter-island ferry service and the T&T Coast Guard. That press conference was hosted by former United National Congress (UNC) minister Devant Maharaj and maritime attorney Nyree Alphonso. The comments cannot be republished as they may be later deemed to be defamatory.
In the letters, Ragoonanan’s lawyers Mario Merritt, Danielle Rampersad and Hasine Shaikh alleged that the comments caused irreparable damage to their client’s personal and professional reputation.
“By reason of such words and/or statements, Ragoonanan has been greatly injured in his good name and position, brought into public scandal and disrepute and held up to contempt, ridicule and shame with and among his business colleagues, relatives, friends, acquaintances and citizens of T&T,” they said.
They also claimed that Rowley and Young intended to defame him when they made the statements.
“The intended defendant undoubtedly contemplated and intended that the words/statements he so said in the public domain would be reported upon by the news outlets to the wider citizenry and ultimately lead to the intended claimant’s shame, embarrassment, contempt, ridicule, odium and injury to his business and trading character and reputation,” the letter to Rowley stated.
Ragoonanan owns several businesses including a restaurant and bar and a water park in Rio Claro, which bears his name.
The letters stated that Ragoonanan would forego filing lawsuits against them if they publically apologise and pay him compensation for the damage to his reputation. They gave Rowley and Young 21 days in which to respond.
The allegations against Ragoonanan relate to a recorded telephone conversation purportedly between him and a Chinese businessman over obtaining contracts from the Public Transportation Service Corporation (PTSC) in 2016.
Ragoonanan, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, has since been suspended pending the outcome of the PNM committee’s inquiry into the three disciplinary charges levelled against him. Hearings of the party’s disciplinary committee had been adjourned in the past due to issues with Ragoonanan being represented by his attorneys at hearings.
The latest hearing was held last month and Ragoonanan requested that the controversial recording be disclosed for his attorneys to prepare his defence. The committee, which is chaired by Planning and Development Minister and Arouca/Maloney MP Camille Robinson-Regis, did not immediately grant the request as it said it would have to consider it further. However, the following day, excerpts of the recording were apparently leaked and broadcast on a radio station.