On Friday, 12 June 2026, Guyana High Court Judge Fidela Lincoln-Corbin delivered a landmark defamation ruling holding current Guyanese Second Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo financially liable for defamatory comments he made against prominent senior engineer Charles Ceres back in 2019.
The case stems from a press conference held on 27 June 2019, when Jagdeo was serving as Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). At that event, Jagdeo made damaging public statements about Ceres’ 2019 land acquisition deal with his then-wife.
In her written ruling, Judge Lincoln-Corbin confirmed that Ceres had presented unchallenged evidence proving Jagdeo either personally published or authorized the publication of the defamatory claims against the engineer. The judge ultimately dismissed all three of Jagdeo’s core legal defenses: justification, fair comment, and qualified privilege. She emphasized that Jagdeo failed to introduce any credible evidence to support any of his defensive claims, despite cross-examining Ceres over the course of the trial in an apparent attempt to validate his arguments.
Alongside the GY$15 million in defamation damages owed directly to Ceres, Jagdeo was also ordered to pay an additional GY$2,150,000 to cover Ceres’ court costs. The ruling also addressed co-defendants Tusika Martin, Editor-in-Chief of the *Guyana Times*, and the newspaper outlet itself. After reviewing the full audio recording of the 2019 press conference that was entered into evidence, Judge Lincoln-Corbin found that while the outlet’s news headline did not clarify the piece was a report on the press conference, the body of the article constituted a fair and accurate summary of Jagdeo’s original remarks. As a result, the judge awarded discretionary costs of GY$1 million to Martin and the *Guyana Times*.
Ceres, a globally recognized geotechnical engineer and groundwater hydrologist with more than four decades of professional experience, was represented in court by attorney Darren Wade. Jagdeo’s legal team was led by barristers C.V. Satram and Ron Motilall.
Shortly after the ruling was issued, Wade announced on his Facebook page that Ceres plans to appeal the court’s decision as it relates to *Guyana Times*, and will also push for a higher damages award against Jagdeo. Even so, Wade publicly urged the vice president to resolve the matter immediately by paying the ordered damages rather than pursuing an appeal. “Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, please pay up as soon as possible. Do not let anyone convince you that there is any real prospect of success on appeal,” Wade stated.