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Enough is enough, time come!
Vaz wants to make example of Professor Rowe
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
"I have always felt over the years that the time would come when I would be able to prove to the world that I have been politically persecuted and kept strong in my faith, comforted by the fact that there is a God who does not sleep although he puts on his pajamas. My time has finally come to prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt. Enough is enough!"
With these words Daryl Vaz, the former minister of information and telecommunications declared he would hound Jamaican-born Florida attorney Professor David Rowe through the American courts in the latest hate-mail saga pitting the two against each other.
Vaz said in the 26 years since he entered representational politics in 1986, he had suffered "a persistent onslaught on my name and reputation", having a good inkling but never hard evidence of whom the perpetrators were.
He recalled for the Observer some of the terrible things people had said against him, including innuendoes and allegations that he had murdered a young school girl, pushed drugs and did corrupt acts, all without evidence.
Vaz, made it clear that he was not linking Rowe to previous attacks on him, and added that as far as the current lawsuit is concerned, he merely wanted to use this to make an example of Rowe.
He said he was suing Rowe specifically for being the alleged author of an email written by "Paul Azan" which he believed is a pseudonym, and which he said had libelled him and several other prominent Jamaican politicians and businessmen.
"In or about March 2012, Rowe knowingly and willfully and maliciously published certain false and disparaging written statements about Vaz to a long list of third parties via e-mail," Vaz said in court documents.
"The publication of these false and misleading statements was calculated and designed to injuriously affect Vaz's reputation by falsely claiming that Vaz, the former minister of information and telecommunications for Jamaica, was a 'close confederate of international drug kingpin Christopher Coke'," it said.
The email was widely circulated across the globe, and according to Vaz: "The defamation occurred through March 13, 20<span style="font-weight: bold">13</span>
e-mail transmissions sent by Defendant Rowe... who practices in the State of Florida, fabricated and published a document which purported to be an official 'US Law Enforcement Memo to Turks and Caicos Special Investigation and Prosecutions Team'.
He alleged the document made "direct accusations of bribery, money laundering, corruption and close affiliations with a notorious convicted drug lord".
Vaz said he had conclusive evidence, using technology, that the author of the mail was Rowe, who denied it in a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit last week.
"Whereas I have always known that the smear campaign against me was politically motivated, and had circumstantial evidence as to the people behind it, I never had anything tangible that could stand up in a court of law. But I always had the faith that one day I would be able to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that these rumours and innuendoes were designed and orchestrated.
"I cannot speak definitively to previous emails, but in relation to this latest one, I am 100 per cent confident that my evidence will stand up in court," he said.
He vowed to pursue the Rowe case "relentlessly to a conclusion through the courts", adding that for him it was not about financial compensation. Vaz believed that if Rowe was found guilty in this case, it would send a signal to others who had maligned him similarly in the past.
"This is about righting wrongs that have been done over the last 26 years of my relatively short 49 years, and to make sure as best as possible that no one will have to suffer a similar fate," said Vaz.
He noted that the libelous e-mail allegedly authored by Rowe had pulled in former prime ministers, prominent politicians and businessmen such as Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, "the Caribbean's leading entrepreneur, seeking to bring his name into disrepute".
He recalled a previous court action involving allegations against Stewart and P J Patterson while Stewart owned Air Jamaica and which Vaz said the defendants were forced by the judge to withdraw the allegations.
Rowe and Vaz locked horns in the Supreme Court when the lawyer testified on behalf of Abe Dabdoub who had brought a motion that Vaz be kicked out of the Parliament, because he had US citizenship at the time of his election to the West Portland seat in September 2007.
Rowe shot back through his attorney David Brown that it was because of that action why Vaz had taken him to court in the current case.
"The lawsuit is politically motivated. Professor Rowe had testified against Mr Vaz as an expert witness in the dual citizenship case, on behalf of Mr Abe Dabdoub," said Brown.
Responding to that claim, Vaz said the dual citizenship case was a legitimate one on which both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal had ruled.
He said: "I fully accepted the rulings, renounced my US citizenship, went back to the people and reconfirmed my mandate with the largest margin of victory by any politician in West Portland.
"So Professor Rowe's claim is just a red herring across the trail and a diversion. I reiterate that this is more about principle than financial compensation and no amount of money or mediation can resolve this matter. This day has been long in coming."
Vaz said it was ironic that while Rowe had offered mediation as a way out, he had at the same filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1syfNH641
Vaz wants to make example of Professor Rowe
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
"I have always felt over the years that the time would come when I would be able to prove to the world that I have been politically persecuted and kept strong in my faith, comforted by the fact that there is a God who does not sleep although he puts on his pajamas. My time has finally come to prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt. Enough is enough!"
With these words Daryl Vaz, the former minister of information and telecommunications declared he would hound Jamaican-born Florida attorney Professor David Rowe through the American courts in the latest hate-mail saga pitting the two against each other.
Vaz said in the 26 years since he entered representational politics in 1986, he had suffered "a persistent onslaught on my name and reputation", having a good inkling but never hard evidence of whom the perpetrators were.
He recalled for the Observer some of the terrible things people had said against him, including innuendoes and allegations that he had murdered a young school girl, pushed drugs and did corrupt acts, all without evidence.
Vaz, made it clear that he was not linking Rowe to previous attacks on him, and added that as far as the current lawsuit is concerned, he merely wanted to use this to make an example of Rowe.
He said he was suing Rowe specifically for being the alleged author of an email written by "Paul Azan" which he believed is a pseudonym, and which he said had libelled him and several other prominent Jamaican politicians and businessmen.
"In or about March 2012, Rowe knowingly and willfully and maliciously published certain false and disparaging written statements about Vaz to a long list of third parties via e-mail," Vaz said in court documents.
"The publication of these false and misleading statements was calculated and designed to injuriously affect Vaz's reputation by falsely claiming that Vaz, the former minister of information and telecommunications for Jamaica, was a 'close confederate of international drug kingpin Christopher Coke'," it said.
The email was widely circulated across the globe, and according to Vaz: "The defamation occurred through March 13, 20<span style="font-weight: bold">13</span>
e-mail transmissions sent by Defendant Rowe... who practices in the State of Florida, fabricated and published a document which purported to be an official 'US Law Enforcement Memo to Turks and Caicos Special Investigation and Prosecutions Team'.
He alleged the document made "direct accusations of bribery, money laundering, corruption and close affiliations with a notorious convicted drug lord".
Vaz said he had conclusive evidence, using technology, that the author of the mail was Rowe, who denied it in a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit last week.
"Whereas I have always known that the smear campaign against me was politically motivated, and had circumstantial evidence as to the people behind it, I never had anything tangible that could stand up in a court of law. But I always had the faith that one day I would be able to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that these rumours and innuendoes were designed and orchestrated.
"I cannot speak definitively to previous emails, but in relation to this latest one, I am 100 per cent confident that my evidence will stand up in court," he said.
He vowed to pursue the Rowe case "relentlessly to a conclusion through the courts", adding that for him it was not about financial compensation. Vaz believed that if Rowe was found guilty in this case, it would send a signal to others who had maligned him similarly in the past.
"This is about righting wrongs that have been done over the last 26 years of my relatively short 49 years, and to make sure as best as possible that no one will have to suffer a similar fate," said Vaz.
He noted that the libelous e-mail allegedly authored by Rowe had pulled in former prime ministers, prominent politicians and businessmen such as Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, "the Caribbean's leading entrepreneur, seeking to bring his name into disrepute".
He recalled a previous court action involving allegations against Stewart and P J Patterson while Stewart owned Air Jamaica and which Vaz said the defendants were forced by the judge to withdraw the allegations.
Rowe and Vaz locked horns in the Supreme Court when the lawyer testified on behalf of Abe Dabdoub who had brought a motion that Vaz be kicked out of the Parliament, because he had US citizenship at the time of his election to the West Portland seat in September 2007.
Rowe shot back through his attorney David Brown that it was because of that action why Vaz had taken him to court in the current case.
"The lawsuit is politically motivated. Professor Rowe had testified against Mr Vaz as an expert witness in the dual citizenship case, on behalf of Mr Abe Dabdoub," said Brown.
Responding to that claim, Vaz said the dual citizenship case was a legitimate one on which both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal had ruled.
He said: "I fully accepted the rulings, renounced my US citizenship, went back to the people and reconfirmed my mandate with the largest margin of victory by any politician in West Portland.
"So Professor Rowe's claim is just a red herring across the trail and a diversion. I reiterate that this is more about principle than financial compensation and no amount of money or mediation can resolve this matter. This day has been long in coming."
Vaz said it was ironic that while Rowe had offered mediation as a way out, he had at the same filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1syfNH641
<span style="font-style: italic">for real mi waan faas</span>.....
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