Paul Slowe must pay $10M to SOCU Head over defamation claims

Former Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe was on Friday ordered to pay $10 million to Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force, Fazil Karimbaksh, over defamation claims.
It has been reported that between November 2, 2021 and January 12, 2022, Slowe published on his Facebook and YouTube pages several defamatory words about Karimbaksh. Slowe, in his show, ‘Exposing Corruption and Incompetence’, said among other things that the Head of SOCU was unqualified, was a political puppet, was guilty of sexual offences, and was complicit in the shooting of a young boy in Berbice.
Karimbaksh had secured a High Court injunction which prohibited Slowe from referring to him as “corrupt, incompetent, unprofessional, unfit and vindictive”. He had also filed a $70 million lawsuit against Slowe.
In her ruling on Friday, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall concluded that Slowe had intentionally and repeatedly presented the information in his videos as truth, as opposed to an opinion or a comment; and had in fact created his Facebook Page, ‘Speaking Out’, after he had been charged and had appeared before a magistrate in court.

The Judge also found that Slowe’s publications appeared to have been motivated by the fact that he was charged, as opposed to any genuine public interest.
Slowe, former Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), had been suspended in October 2021, and had later been slapped with fraud and sexual assault charges.
Justice Ramlall, during her ruling, found that Slowe had failed to establish any of his defence of justification or fair comment on a matter of public importance, and had acted maliciously.
Besides awarding damages to the tune of $10 million, the court has issued a permanent injunction preventing Slowe from publishing any further defamatory words of and concerning Karimbaksh. In addition, Slowe has been ordered to pay costs in the sum of $300,000 by July 28, 2024.
In granting the award of damages, the Judge considered several local cases as well as the aggravating factors, including the number of publications and repeated utterances, and the lack of any mitigating factors, remorse, or apology by Slowe.
Karimbaksh was represented by attorneys C.V. Satram and Ron Motilall, while Slowe was represented by Attorney Nigel Hughes.
Court documents back in 2022 showed that Karimbaksh has contended that following the charges being instituted against him, Slowe created a social media programme that is broadcasted on Facebook and YouTube under the title “Speaking Out: Exposing Corruption and Incompetence”.
“The said Facebook and YouTube pages were created by the defendant or at his instruction for the sole purpose of launching character attacks on the… officers that are investigating him for these offences, (in order) to prejudice the investigations,” the SOCU Head argued in his legal submissions to the court.
“Since creating the said Facebook and YouTube pages, the defendant regularly publishes and causes to be published defamatory materials about and concerning the claimant,” Karimbaksh further submitted.
He highlighted a specific instance in which the Facebook page published the following words, “Senior Superintendent Fazil Karimbaksh has disciplinary matters pending against him. He is known to be vindictive and unprofessional, yet he remains in charge of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) which he has used to carry out his personal vendettas.” This publication, Karimbaksh pointed out, was shared 12 times and had more than 100 interactions.
The SOCU Head further cited other instances in which his character had been brought into disrepute on the two social media pages.
It was argued that as a consequence of the publications, the claimant’s reputation has been “seriously harmed, and he has suffered considerable hurt, embarrassment, distress, and anxiety”.
“The number of publications and the continuing nature of the defamation has increased the defamatory sting,” Karimbaksh further contended in his legal submissions.
As such, the SOCU Head secured the injunction barring the social media pages from publishing defamatory statements against him.