by STAFF WRITER
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Feb 10, CMC – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has given Opposition Leader Andrew Holness three days to apologise for a statement he allegedly made during Nomination Day on Thursday, or face a law suit.
Lawyers for Prime Minister Simpson Miller contend that Holness, the leader of the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had made statements during a media interview that “were most defamatory of our client.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller
“On that occasion, words were used and published on Television Jamaica’s 7 p.m newscast on the said Tuesday the 9th February, 2016 which tended to injure, degrade and discredit the character of our client, exposing her to hatred, contempt and ridicule and which therefore tended to lower her in the estimation of right-thinking members of society.
“It is our view that ordinary, intelligent and unbiased persons, with the ordinary person’s general knowledge and experience of worldly affairs would be likely to understand those words as conveying that our client was involved in acts calculated to deceive or swindle the public,” said attorney Bert Samuels of the firm Knight, Junor & Samuels.
Samuels wrote that the “purpose of this letter is to demand that a suitably worded apology, approved by our client be published on Television Jamaica , in the Jamaica Observer and The Gleaner and that our client be paid damages commensurate with her station in life locally and internationally, along with his legal costs. The frequency of these publications must also be approved by our client.”
Andrew Holness – Opposition Leader, Jamaica
Holness has not yet commented on the letter, which Samuels said had been delivered at 12.41 pm (local time) at the JLP headquarters.
Both Simpson Miller and Holness were nominated to contest the February 25 general election.
Prime Minister Simpson Miller is leading the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) into the election, while Holness is at the helm of the JLP.
In the last general election, the PNP won 42 of the 63 seats at stake.
