Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, has threatened two well-known British human rights lawyers, Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Adam Wagner, with a defamation suit following the filing of a complaint on behalf of their clients over an alleged corruption case.
According to the lawyer representing Picardo, the Gibraltarian government and other high-ranking officials, the lawyers’ claims are «totally false and highly defamatory», reports the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’.
Gallagher and Wagner represent former Gibraltar Police chief Ian McGrail, who claims he was pressured into early retirement following a search warrant against a person close to Picardo. The island’s leader has denied all allegations.
The Gibraltarian government’s lawyer, Peter Caruana, who is also a former chief minister of the Rock, has said that the allegations made by lawyers on behalf of McGrail «are outrageous and totally false, as well as highly defamatory.» «The chief minister has authorized us to advise that he reserves his rights in respect of the persons named,» he added.
Gallagher has responded by calling this warning «as inappropriate as it is intimidating,» «victimized behavior.» «We have asked for this threat to be withdrawn. Unfortunately this has not happened,» he said before recalling the «qualified privilege» that protects lawyers when they are representing their clients in legal proceedings.
Caruana has responded that «it is only a threat if my read friend or her client believes they are not entitled to the defense of qualified privilege.»
However, the instructor in the case, Peter Openshaw, has pointed out that this threat of a defamation complaint is «misplaced.» «People should be able to make complaints and witnesses should not be deterred from providing evidence or making complaints to the inquiry. I regret that this threat has been made,» he has argued.
Following the hearing, Wagner has called for an apology. «Lawyers representing their clients should not receive personal threats for defamation. It is particularly worrying that these threats are coming from the Government of Gibraltar. We are pleased that Peter Openshaw has criticized the Government’s conduct,» he said.
The president of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Mark Stephens, has also criticized the Gibraltarian government’s actions. «Lawyers should be free to represent their clients without fear of being personally sued for defamation. It is a disgrace, an affront to human rights that the government of a British overseas territory uses this tactic against British and Gibraltarian lawyers,» he said.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
