Callista sues Jeffrey, MBC for defamation
Former first lady Callista Mutharika has dragged to court governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary general Greselder Jeffrey and MBC, demanding a K500 million compensation for defamation.
Mutharika’s lawsuit comes days after the DPP secretary general alleged that the former first lady killed her husband, former president Bingu wa Mutharika in April 2012.
Jeffrey has been sued alongside the public broadcaster MBC for allegedly broadcasting live the words that Jeffrey uttered against the former first lady.
High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal registrar Agnes Patemba and private practice lawyer Ambokire Salimu, who is representing Callista Mutharika, confirmed the suit in separate interviews yesterday.
“Yes. We have received summons where the former first lady has sued Greselder Jeffrey and MBC for defamation. She is praying for K500 million as damages for defamation,” said Patemba yesterday.
On his part, Salimu said he was entrusted by Mutharika to proceed with legal proceedings after the DPP top administrator made her accusation during a DPP political rally in Thyolo last Saturday.
He said: “We have filed the summons basically claiming K500 million. Those are exemplary aggravated damages reflecting the seriousness of the slander or defamation.
“You know she [Mutharika] is a high profile citizen and this thing was said at a grander stage than a political rally addressed by the DPP and then MBC carried it live so we think it is the ultimate form of defamation.”
According to court documents The Nation has seen, Mutharika pleads that as a result of the defamation, her character has been vilified and has suffered and continues to suffer contempt and “odium as the alleged killer of her husband.”
She further pleads that Jeffrey’s utterances were the ultimatum epitomisation of slander as the words had no justification, were uttered against a former first lady, had a subject matter no lesser person than a person who was President of the country before he died and were uttered at the grandest of stages; a rally patronised by the sitting President who is brother to the claimant’s late husband.
“The claimant… pleads that the first defendant’s [Jeffrey] slander was brazen, atrocious and calculated to cause the ultimate humiliation of the claimant in the minds of the public,” reads part of the filed statement of case.
According to the documents, if the defendants are not interested to contest the proceedings but desire to apply for a stay of execution, they should file their response within 14 days of service indicating their intention.
However, the defendants have been given 28 days from the date of service of the summons to file and serve a defence and a list of documents if they wish to contest the proceedings.
According to records, the late Bingu, the elder brother to the incumbent President, died from a heart attack after he collapsed in his office at State House in Lilongwe on April 5 2012.
Then 78 years old, Bingu was rushed to Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, but was reportedly pronounced dead on arrival before his body was swiftly airlifted to South Africa after which an official announcement about his death was made two days later.
The former first lady and her brother-in-law, President Peter Mutharika and other DPP members, have not been seeing eye to eye with each other since she publicly said the President was old and it was time he honourably left office for his deputy Saulos Chilima to lead the party during next year’s tripartite elections.
There was no immediate comment from Jeffrey yesterday as she was attending rallies by the President, but she told a rally in Chiradzulu that she would not apologise for any comments she is making and was ready to meet whoever drags her to court.
