Emailgate scandal takes another turn

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and her Attorney General Anand Ramlogan have filed pre-action protocol letters against Opposition leader Dr. Keith Rowley as the fall out continues over the “emailgate” scandal in Trinidad and Tobago. Attorney Donna Prowell in the letter bars Rowley from repeating the statements or making “any similar defamatory statements,” failing which the parties will “immediately seek injunctive relief before the High Court” without notice to him. Rowley has 14 days to respond to the letter. On May 20, Rowley told Parliament he had received 31 emails purporting to show correspondence between Prime Minister Persad Bissessar, Ramlogan, Local Government and Works Minister Suruj Rambachan and security adviser Gary Griffith, in a sinister move to undermine the judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the media. The government officials have all denied the accusations and pre-action protocol letter alleges that Rowley on May 23 at a public meeting continued to use the e-mails as the basis for his assertion.  “Against the background of events during the 20th to the 22nd May, 2013, the public was particularly sensitive to his allegations grounded on the purported e-mails,” the letter said, adding that the statements allegedly made at the public meeting were reported in the daily newspapers here on May 25. The letter also claims that Rowley told the public meeting that if government officials decided to take action against him and to send him to jail, he preferred “to be in the jail in Golden Grove or in Frederick Street with the criminals than to be with the criminals in Parliament”.

Courtesy: www.cananewsonline.com