BELMOPAN, Belize, Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow says the High Court has dismissed a lawsuit brought against him by Prime Minister John Briceno, dating back to remarks made in 2019.
The claim arose from a statement made by Barrow on Facebook in the wake of a New Year’s address delivered by then Opposition Leader John Briceño.
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 United Democratic Party (UDP) being involved in landing drug planes.
In a Facebook comment, Shyne rebutted by making certain remarks about Briceno in the context of narco planes.
Speaking at a news conference following the court ruling, the UDP leader said the trial judge dismissed the matter on the ground that his response was proportionate to the unfounded claim made by Briceño.
“I had gone to the attorney general at the time, Honourable (Michael) Peyrefitte, so we could sue him. Peyrefitte had given a request to provide 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 (Dean) Barrow happened to be the prime minister at the time. She agreed that I had responded to his accusation proportionately and that it was not defamation,” the Opposition Leader told reporters.
Barrow said the case could be looked at as one of 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 see 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,” he added.
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