For­mer Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) po­lit­i­cal leader Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der has been or­dered to pay $850,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to Pa­tri­ot­ic Front po­lit­i­cal leader Mick­ela Pan­day for defama­tion. 

High Court Judge Devin­dra Ram­per­sad or­dered the com­pen­sa­tion as he up­held Pan­day’s case against Alexan­der, last Wednes­day. 

The law­suit was re­lat­ed to a live video which was post­ed on Alexan­der’s per­son­al Face­book page and one as­so­ci­at­ed with the PEP on Ju­ly 17, 2020. 

Alexan­der com­ment­ed on Pan­day’s par­ty re­vers­ing its de­ci­sion to con­test the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion. 

In his judg­ment, Jus­tice Ram­per­sad ruled that Alexan­der’s com­ments were defam­a­to­ry. 

He said, “The court is of the re­spect­ful view that the state­ment was ma­li­cious and was de­signed to sen­sa­tion­alise an ob­vi­ous un­truth that was fab­ri­cat­ed for per­son­al po­lit­i­cal gain and to den­i­grate and dis­par­age the claimant.”

Jus­tice Ram­per­sad al­so ruled that Alexan­der’s state­ment did not qual­i­fy as re­spon­si­ble jour­nal­ism as claimed. 

“There was no source of the in­for­ma­tion that was giv­en in the video nor did it seem that there were any steps what­so­ev­er tak­en to ver­i­fy the in­for­ma­tion,” he added. 

Jus­tice Ram­per­sad or­dered $600,000 in gen­er­al dam­ages and $250,000 in ex­em­plary dam­ages. 

His as­sess­ment was based on her fam­i­ly’s name she in­her­it­ed from her fa­ther, for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, and her un­blem­ished per­son­al rep­u­ta­tion as an at­tor­ney and politi­cian. 

Alexan­der was al­so or­dered to pay $97,750 in le­gal costs for the law­suit. 

Last month, Alexan­der was or­dered to pay $525,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert af­ter he ac­cused him of pur­chas­ing an ex­ot­ic Swedish sports car for US$2 mil­lion us­ing for­eign ex­change he ob­tained based on his Cab­i­net po­si­tion. 

Alexan­der has since an­nounced his de­ci­sion to ap­peal the out­come of Im­bert’s case. 

In 2019, Alexan­der was or­dered to pay $775,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to busi­ness­man An­drew Gabriel. 

Gabriel’s case against Alexan­der cen­tred around state­ments made on a ra­dio show on Feb­ru­ary 8, 2017. 

On Sun­day, Alexan­der an­nounced his re­tire­ment from ac­tive pol­i­tics. 

Alexan­der was rep­re­sent­ed by Ar­ron Smith and Ameil­ia Kam­raj.

Pan­day was rep­re­sent­ed by Justin Phelps, Rik­ki Har­nanan, Chase Pe­gus and Ele­na Da Sil­va-Ot­t­ley.