THE Prime Minister has defended statements he made in a private conversation in 2020, insisting they were not injurious to Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, and only that it was his opinion that the former housing minister had questions to answer in relation to a 2012 project by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

Dr Rowley was testifying in a defamation lawsuit against him by the Opposition MP. Dr Moonilal has taken issue with a story published in the Trinidad Express on January 6, 2020, which purportedly reported on an exchange of WhatsApp messages between Dr Rowley and Kirk Waithe, of the NGO Fixin' T&T.

The alleged messages mentioned Moonilal’s name, a UNC member and the HDC’s purchase of Eden Gardens in Freeport for $175 million.

Moonilal has also sued the Trinidad Express, its editor in chief and the reporter who wrote the article.

Moonilal claims the Prime Minister defamed him by inferring and implying he was involved in illegal and corrupt activities.

However, it is Rowley’s defence that references he made in the conversation to “UNC operatives” had nothing to do with his political opponent. He explained what he meant by “operatives” during his testimony.

However, he insists Moonilal, as the former housing minister, had questions to answer on the Eden Gardens project.

For most of the day, except when either was testifying, the two men sat at opposite ends of a table in a courtroom at the Waterfront Judicial Centre, Port of Spain, instead of opposite each other in the Parliament for the budget debate. Justice Carol Gobin is presiding over the trial, which continues on October 10.

At the start of the first day of the trial, Moonilal’s lead attorney, Larry Lalla, SC, gave a rare opening statement.

He said it was Moonilal’s case that the Prime Minister’s statement was “as a whole, defamatory.”

“The first defendant bifurcates the statement and contends that part of the statement (the words complained of) does not refer to the claimant and that the claimant has questions to answer in relation to the Eden Gardens development.”

He said it was his client’s position that the ordinary reader would not have read into the statements in the way the prime minister alleges in his defence.

“The first defendant relies on the defences of truth and fair comment and contends that the claimant had questions to answer in relation to Eden Gardens

“They have spent a lot of time in their defence and witness statements to prove that the claimant had questions to answer.

“While they are entitled to prove that at the time that the statement was uttered by the PM, he had a basis for saying the claimant had questions to answer in relation to Eden Gardens, the case is not about having the claimant answer those questions now.”

[caption id="attachment_1039360" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, right, at the Waterfront Judicial Centre, Port of Spain, on Monday. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]

Lalla gave notice that he would object to any cross-examination of his cli