Today the Leader of the Opposition held a press conference after a big win in the courtroom. A defamation case that was brought against him by PM John Briceno was dismissed in court after Barrow and his lawyer successfully defended their case.
The alleged slander occurred back in 2019, when Barrow responded to a speech that Briceno had made, in which he said he had credible information of those in the UDP being involved in landing drug planes. Shyne, in a Facebook comment, rebutted by making certain remarks about the PM - who was in opposition at that time - in the context of narco planes.
Barrow explained how they were able to beat the suit.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"I had gone to the attorney general at the time Hon. Peyrefitte so that we could sue him. Peyrefitte had given an ultimatum to provide the credible information that he had. He never it and I responded. The learned Justice Young agreed that I had the right, according to case law, to respond to his slander, to his defamation, to his accusation baseless about the UDP government who Prime Minister Barrow happened to be the prime minister at the time. She agreed that I had proportionately responded to his accusation and that it was not defamation."
Reporter
"For clarity sake, was this your appearance on Channel 7's Uncut or was it in another..."
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"No this was before. I believe it was in 2019 new year's speech, infamous speech when Prime Minister Briceno said that he had credible information that the highest level of the UDP were involved in landing drug planes."
Reporter
"Under what medium did you make your comments?"
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"Facebook, and I have to sing praises and laud my lawyer from Barrow and Williams who found the case law."
Reporter
"Do you feel like your words are a little loose in terms of this particular topic?"
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"How so? you said that I am not wrong and the court just agreed with me."
Reporter
"The way you phrased it, because after Uncut..."
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"I had no litigation with that, nothing. they wrote a letter to try to rattle me and we wrote back and the matter was dropped. So you could look at this as a freedom of speech. You could look at this for the benefit of anyone in society being able to hold any of us to account. You could look at it that the prime minister needs to be more careful in those utterances that the highest officials were landing planes. To me, this is reflective of that, because had he not said that then I would have been liable if I just came out and started attacking him."
Briceno's attorney was Leeroy Banner.
