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Rio Claro businessman Ashmeed Mohammed has lost his defamation lawsuit against the T&T Express Newspapers and television station, CCN TV6, over a series of reports which alleged that he was a terrorist.
Delivering an oral judgement at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday, High Court Judge Avason Quinlan-Williams ruled that two newspaper reports published in 2014 were libellous to Mohammed.
However, she ruled that both media companies had successfully proved that their reports were covered under the Reynolds defence of responsible journalism.
Although the companies were entitled to have Mohammed pay their legal costs for defending the lawsuit, Quinlan-Williams ruled that each party should bear their own costs.
In an interview with Guardian Media after the judgement was delivered, Mohammed said he planned to appeal.
“My name was slandered. Canada banned me and I lost all my business interests there,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed, who operates an import and distribution business, filed the lawsuit after the media reports claimed that he had flown to Syria and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis).
Mohammed, who was then a Canadian resident, claimed that after the reports were published his immigration status had been revoked.
In addition to claiming that its journalists acted responsibly in publishing the reports, the media companies, which are part of One Caribbean Media Limited (OCM), alleged that they did not directly refer to Mohammed as his first name was spelt differently in each report.
While she accepted that there was sufficient public interest in the story and that the companies’ journalists performed their duties fairly, Quinlan-Williams said that Mohammed was the subject of the reports despite the difference in spelling.
In 2011, Mohammed was among a group of men who were detained during the State of Emergency as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and members of her Cabinet.
Mohammed denied any wrongdoing and was eventually freed along with the other detainees as police did not have sufficient evidence against them.
He was represented by Farid Scoon and Michael Coppin, while the companies were represented by Faarees Hosein.