Grenada PM threatens to sue media houses

ST GEORGE'S, Grenada, Jan 10 (CMC) - Prime Minister Keith Mitchell Wednesday threatened to take legal action against sections of the local media claiming that he had been libelled by them. While Mitchell did not disclose the names of the media houses, he said his lawyers would be taking the necessary action soon. "There are one or two radio stations who have said things recently, they will be sued. It's coming, they probably thought they got away but I have the facts now and I will deal with it, and some other media people, I am not sitting on this," he said Wednesday while appearing on a radio talk show here. Mitchell's threat comes amidst persistent calls here by some groups for the re-opening of an inquiry into allegations that the Prime Minister had received a sum of money from Eric Resteiner, a former Grenada trade representative. In 2004 Governor General Sir Daniel Williams appointed Barbadian attorney-at-law Sir Richard Cheltenham as the sole commissioner to investigate the allegations made against Mitchell resulting from a trip to Switzerland in 2000. After five days of public hearing the commission was adjourned on June 17, 2005 and no date has been given for its resumption. Mitchell has consistently denied the allegation in what has been dubbed here "the brief case issue". He has warned media houses in the past that he would seek legal redress should he be libeled or slandered by their reports. The Prime Minister reiterated that position on Wednesday. "You have to face the consequences of attacking me, and therefore whatever I know about you I will deal with it as long as what you say about me is not true. "I will not sit and allow you to damage Keith Mitchell because he has struggled to make this person reach where he's at today. I will not sit back and allow the office of the prime minister to be destroyed or be reduced to nothing," he warned. Last week, the country's umbrella trade union body, the Trade Unions Congress (TUC), wrote Attorney General Elvin Nimrod urging him not to shrink his responsibility and do whatever it takes to acquire a controversial videotape that allegedly shows Mitchell receiving the money in Switzerland in June 2000 from Resteiner.