Cross-examination of Luncheon sparks legal arguments
HEAD  of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon told Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang, yesterday,  that, after reading a Kaieteur News article with ‘King Kong’ in the headline, he was convinced the writer was calling President Bharrat Jagdeo a racist. The HPS was testifying in the case in which the Head of State has sued the newspaper and the writer, Freddie Kissoon for libel.
The witness also said that, on many occasions, he read a number of articles in that newspaper  which sought  to confuse readers  by implicating members of the Cabinet and Government officials in the alleged practice of racism against Afro -Guyanese.
Luncheon recalled reading the article in question, ‘King Kong and his goons sent to  disrupt the conference’ and said it left him with the impression that  the writer, Kisson,  in his mentioning King Kong, was directly referring to President Jagdeo with a negative connotation.
The witness was led in his examination-in-chief by attorney-at-law, Mr. Anil Nandlall who asked him about the effects of the June  27,   2010 publication.
The other defendants in the case are Adam Harris and National Media and Publishing Company Limited.
Under cross-examination by Mr. Nigel Hughes, for the defence, Luncheon was asked about the ethnicity of persons serving the Government overseas as diplomats and heads of agencies and he explained that, with the exception of one person, the others are Indians.
Nandlall interrupted, arguing that the defence did not have justification to pursue that line of cross-examination, triggering an exchange of legal arguments between the lawyers for President Jagdeo and those for the defendants, who include Mr. Christopher  Ram and Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan.
The arguments are expected to continue on Monday but Luncheon is not expected to return to court until August 24.
Jagdeo is claiming, among other things, in excess of $10M  contained in the June 29, 2010 article.