News / National
Grace Mugabe sues Standard for US$15m
16 Dec 2010 at 15:50hrs | Views
Grace Mugabe yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Standard newspaper
demanding US$15 million as damages for defamation over an article
published by the paper that insinuated she was caught up in a "blood diamond
scandal".
Grace Mugabe feels the article was highly defamatory to her as wife to the President and that it put her in bad light.
She argues that the article was false, scandalous, malicious and bent on damaging her reputation.
In summons issued out at the High Court yesterday, Grace's lawyer, Mr George Chikumbirike of Chikumbirike and Associates, listed the weekly newspaper, its Editor Nevanji Madanhire, reporter Nqaba Matshazi and Munn Marketing Private Limited and Strand Multiprint Private Limited as defendants.
The article in question was published in the paper's 12 December edition and the information contained was attributed to WikiLeaks.
It was headlined "First Lady, Gono, in Diamond Scandal ' WikiLeaks".
Part of the published article reads: "Grace Mugabe has been fingered as one of the principal beneficiaries of the illegal Marange diamond sales, which have been described as one of the dirtiest.
"According to the latest cable releases by whistle blower website WikiLeaks, diamond sales have enriched those close to President Mugabe including his wife Grace, who is said to have reaped tremendous profits."
Mr Chikumbirike submitted that the statements were understood by readers of the newspaper and online publications to convey the scandalous aspersion that the Grace Mugabe "engaged in criminal and unsavoury activities, in being a beneficiary of illegal diamond sales at Marange".
The article wrongly portrayed Grace Mugabe as corrupt in that "she used her position as the First Lady to access diamonds clandestinely, enriching herself in circumstances in which the country was facing serious foreign currency shortages, which amounts should have been channelled to the fiscus".
The article, Mr Chikumbirike says, wrongly made people to believe that the Grace was complicit in the murder and displacement of thousands of people because of her participation in the illicit trade in the gemstones.
"The aforesaid statements, in the context of the article, reflect upon the moral character of the Plaintiff, (Grace Mugabe) by attributing to her, knowingly participation in the proceeds of illicit trade in diamond.
"This is a direct imputation of dishonourable or improper conduct on the part of the Plaintiff. A criminal connotation is explicit in the context of the article read as a whole," read the summons.
The First Lady was of high status and that the article badly damaged her person. "The Plaintiff is of high standing in Zimbabwe. She is well regarded internationally. Further, she is the wife of His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe. The imputation of such conduct on a person of such high standing, the mother of the nation, is to lower the respect with which she is held by all right thinking persons, to a point of disappearance," read the papers
Grace Mugabe feels the article was highly defamatory to her as wife to the President and that it put her in bad light.
She argues that the article was false, scandalous, malicious and bent on damaging her reputation.
In summons issued out at the High Court yesterday, Grace's lawyer, Mr George Chikumbirike of Chikumbirike and Associates, listed the weekly newspaper, its Editor Nevanji Madanhire, reporter Nqaba Matshazi and Munn Marketing Private Limited and Strand Multiprint Private Limited as defendants.
The article in question was published in the paper's 12 December edition and the information contained was attributed to WikiLeaks.
It was headlined "First Lady, Gono, in Diamond Scandal ' WikiLeaks".
Part of the published article reads: "Grace Mugabe has been fingered as one of the principal beneficiaries of the illegal Marange diamond sales, which have been described as one of the dirtiest.
"According to the latest cable releases by whistle blower website WikiLeaks, diamond sales have enriched those close to President Mugabe including his wife Grace, who is said to have reaped tremendous profits."
Mr Chikumbirike submitted that the statements were understood by readers of the newspaper and online publications to convey the scandalous aspersion that the Grace Mugabe "engaged in criminal and unsavoury activities, in being a beneficiary of illegal diamond sales at Marange".
The article wrongly portrayed Grace Mugabe as corrupt in that "she used her position as the First Lady to access diamonds clandestinely, enriching herself in circumstances in which the country was facing serious foreign currency shortages, which amounts should have been channelled to the fiscus".
The article, Mr Chikumbirike says, wrongly made people to believe that the Grace was complicit in the murder and displacement of thousands of people because of her participation in the illicit trade in the gemstones.
"The aforesaid statements, in the context of the article, reflect upon the moral character of the Plaintiff, (Grace Mugabe) by attributing to her, knowingly participation in the proceeds of illicit trade in diamond.
"This is a direct imputation of dishonourable or improper conduct on the part of the Plaintiff. A criminal connotation is explicit in the context of the article read as a whole," read the summons.
The First Lady was of high status and that the article badly damaged her person. "The Plaintiff is of high standing in Zimbabwe. She is well regarded internationally. Further, she is the wife of His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe. The imputation of such conduct on a person of such high standing, the mother of the nation, is to lower the respect with which she is held by all right thinking persons, to a point of disappearance," read the papers
Source - Byo24
