Above: Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe (Photo: OPM Haiti)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has won a court judgment in his defamation case against US-based Web site “Haiti Observateur,” according to federal court records.
The PM and businessman Patrice Baker had brought a defamation action against Leo Joseph, who runs the site, over statements he had published about Lamothe and Baker regarding the Haitian government’s acquisition of the Haitel telecommunications company.
Lamothe and Baker brought the action in the Southern District of Florida in September.
Miami Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro found in favour of the plaintiffs, ruling that Joseph’s statements were “entirely false and conjured to destroy the reputations of Baker and Lamothe.”
“Defendant’s publications are replete with statements that are outrageous, scandalous and reminiscent of a tabloid publication,” Ungaro wrote in the judgment.
Lamothe and Baker had brought a motion for default judgment after Joseph failed to respond to the suit.
The Judge permanently restrained Joseph “from publishing future communications to any third parties concerning or regarding the Plaintiffs in either their professional, personal or political lives.”
Judgment was officially entered Feb. 6.