GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Cathy Hughes, a founding member of the opposition, Alliance for Change (AFC), has filed a lawsuit against Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo seeking more than GUY$50 million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) for a statement he made describing her.
Hughes, a media specialist, said that she was slandered by Jagdeo at a news conference on November 23, this year, when he uttered and caused to be published the following words “from someone, a low life like Cathy Hughes” in an apparent reference to her.
“The publication of the words complained of has gravely injured the reputation of the Claimant, exposed her to public scandal and contempt, great embarrassment, psychological trauma, emotional distress, and public humiliation,” according to the lawsuit.
“In their natural and ordinary meaning, the words meant and were understood to mean and suggests in their plain and literal language” nine descriptions “which are all blatant lies and deliberate falsehoods.”
The lawsuit, filed by the firm Hughes, Fields, and Stoby, whose principals include Nigel Hughes, the husband of the opposition politicians, indicated that in support of her claim for general and exemplary damages, she would rely on the fact that Jagdeo is the current Vice President and a former head of state, as well as the general secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and a legislator.
She is cited in the court papers as the chairman of the AFC, a political party in the National Assembly. She has also served as a government minister and represented Guyana regionally and internationally. She is also a female and African.
Those characterizations are, according to her, that “low life” means a criminal, disreputable, African woman or woman of loose moral and disposition, low class, African woman not deserving of respect and dignity; conducted her life in a manner which most persons
disapproved of being involved in criminal activities, earning contempt, sub-human African female or female, and dishonorable.
Hughes is claiming damages over GUY$50 million for slander in respect of the words spoken and published by Jagdeo at the news conference and accessible to the public nationally and internationally; GUY$100,000 for defamation in respect of words spoken by him, exemplary damages, and damages over GUY$100,000 for psychological abuse committed by Jagdeo.
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