Leroy Parris, the embattled former executive chairman of CLICO Holdings (Barbados), has taken legal action against the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), as well as two of this country’s newspapers, coming out of an intensive two-week election campaign earlier this year.
Parris is seeking punitive damages from the High Court of Barbados, claiming he was defamed in a number of newspaper ads which appeared in both the NATION newspaper and the Barbados Advocate, showing him in a picture with Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler and attorney at law Hal Gollop.
The picture was published on February 10, after the three were caught on camera at a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) mass meeting in The Ivy, St Michael.
Four days later the same picture appeared as part of a paid political advertisement of the BLP, with the words Why You Won’t Get Justice From The DLP On CLICO headlined above the image.
The ads became a prominent feature in both newspapers throughout the election campaign.
The case commenced in-chambers before Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson, in the No 11 Supreme Court last Friday.
