The Excessive Court docket has awarded opposition MP David Patterson GUY$1 million (US$four,767) in damages after he was unfairly prevented from leaving Guyana in 2023.
In her ruling on Friday, Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire additionally ordered the State to pay Patterson GUY $250,000 (US$1,191) in court docket prices.
Though it was a victory for Patterson, it fell in need of his US$25 million (US$119,190) declare. The lawsuit arose from an incident wherein authorities prevented him from leaving the nation on September 26, 2023, when he was scheduled to hitch an opposition delegation assembly with US congressmen and different officers.
Patterson had cleared safety checks at Cheddi Jagan Worldwide Airport and was making ready for his flight when immigration officers prevented his departure.
The president of the Alliance for Change (AFC) was allowed to journey a number of days later. Subsequently, his lawyer, Nigel Hughes, filed a declare alleging violation of the elemental proper to freedom of motion, searching for damages and exemplary prices. Patterson acknowledged that he skilled loss, embarrassment and embarrassment as a result of journey restriction.
The Guyana Police Drive (GPF) attributed the incident to Patterson being mistakenly left on an Immigration Division watch listing following a earlier cost of indecent publicity.
Police, whose commissioner serves as immigration director, apologized to Patterson, who was later acquitted of the indecent publicity cost in February 2024.