BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOUNDER and General Manager of the popular Yahoo! Group SKNList.com, Charles Mitcham was written to by Attorney-at-Law Sylvester Anthony accusing him of publishing false and defamatory allegations and statements about his client, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas.
A release sent by the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary, Erasmus Williams, stated that Anthony, acting on behalf of Dr. Douglas, said in the letter that over the past months a number of persons, known and unknown, had made several false and defamatory allegations and statements on the chat list.
“These statements mean or are understood to mean that our client (1) receive a bribe from a white foreigner for state largesse in return; used State projects namely La Valle and SSMC to dishonestly siphon off monies to his personal accounts and for his personal benefit; is involved in drug trafficking and/or associated with drug traffickers and personally received money from drug traffickers and sought to extort 50% of a company belonging to one Clecton Phillip and 25 percent belonging to Gus Williams,” the letter from Anthony law offices read.
The letter also complained of statements on the SKNList, noting Dr. Douglas “secretly owes First Citizens Bank Ltd. the sum of $5,078,716; falsely declared that there was debt forgiveness with SACE and the Government of Italy and transferred and/or stole more than US$76 million of the alleged debt into the account of Lex Consulting for his own benefit and has abused the Office of Prime Minister and has sought to use, and dishonestly used, the Office for his own corrupt and personal gain”.
The release also stated Anthony told Mitcham that the “allegations are totally false” and it was clear that he is unconcerned with the true position, and that the publications are part of a calculated and partisan campaign to deliberately smear Dr. Douglas and drive him from political office”.
The letter pointed out that while Dr. Douglas welcomes political debate, “it is apparent from the way you have conducted or managed the SKNList in relation to these matters, that you have no interest in engaging upon the true facts, but solely motivated to damage Dr. Douglas’ good name for your own personal or political purposes”.
It further stated, “This is unacceptable to him and damaging to the reputation of St. Kitts and Nevis.”
It also pointed out that in the circumstances, Dr. Douglas could not allow the allegations to go uncorrected and called for the offending publications, if still available online, to be removed immediately pending resolution of the matter.
Anthony law offices called on Mitcham to publish a retraction, apologise and compensate Dr. Douglas for the damage and distress he has suffered.
“That you agree to publish on the SKNList a suitable retraction and apology in agreed terms for a period of six weeks; that you pay Dr. Douglas an appropriate sum of money to be agreed between the parties in order to compensate him for the damage and distress he has suffered and to vindicate his personal and professional reputation; that you undertake not to repeat the allegations and that you indemnify him for his legal costs in dealing with this matter in any event.”
Additionally, the letter stated that legal proceedings for libel would begin if a speedy and constructive response were not received.
SKNVibes made numerous attempts (including email) to get a comment from Mitcham, but they were all futile.
Founded in 1999, SKNList is an online email community hosted by Yahoo! Groups that primarily posts issues, events and commentaries of interest about St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as being a source for interactive communication among nationals of the twin-island Federation living at home and abroad.
