Dr Bari says Kaieteur News stories defamatory
Wants apology
Stabroek News
May 10, 2002
Physician and surgeon, Dr Abubakar Bari, who was recently incarcerated in Suriname, is demanding a retraction and a public apology for what he said were defamatory articles concerning him in the Kaieteur News.
In a statement issued yesterday in response to articles published in the Kaieteur News editions of May 1 and May 2-4, Dr Bari said that the statements were "erroneous and defamatory" and were "without question intended to bring me to shame and disrepute in my personal and professional life."
To this end, he said he had instructed his lawyer to write to the editor of the Kaieteur News demanding a retraction and a public apology in that very newspaper.
In relation to the May 1 front page headline which read `Dr Abu Bari to be deported' -` Held with arms, ammo, diamonds, passports, immigration stamps', Dr Bari said he was "never held with any arms, ammo, diamonds, passports and immigration stamps." He said that if the newspapers were "interested in truth and accuracy in reporting more than attention grabbing headlines, it would have done some minimal investigations and uncovered the truth."
The article on page three, he said, was "even more false and misleading" in that it inferred that he was not a Guya-nese citizen but simply claimed to be so. The Sudan-born Dr Bari told Stabroek News that he has been a naturalised Guyanese for 23 years.
He said that "fake and misleading" too were claims by the newspaper that he had in the past wrongfully sold a printing press and furniture, and that he had been the subject of an investigation into the theft of a quantity of diamonds; and that he had been living in Suriname at the time of his detention. He told Stabroek News in an interview that he never lived in Suriname but was in transit when he was held along with another Guyanese.
Describing the article on page 11 in relation to the headline in the May 2-4 issue as venomous, he said so intent was the desire to "defame me" that in paragraph two, column one the newspaper inferred that he was "nabbed with arms, ammunition, diamonds, and United States currency" while paragraph four reported "sources say that all items were found in (someone else's) possession. The doctor has denied any involvement" and at paragraph 2, Column 3, "police said that the items were all in (someone else's) possession, but it appeared that the men were travelling together."
He denied the report in the article that he was "at the centre of investigations into the theft of a quantity of diamonds from a West Ruimveldt home. The doctor had alleged that he was robbed and shot during the robbery." Dr Bari was the victim of an armed robbery at his home in Bel Air and not in West Ruimveldt in 1998.