A judge has ordered the publisher of a weekly newspaper on the Caribbean island of Grenada to pay $71,000 in libel damages to a former prime minister or face closure.Former leader Keith Mitchell sued Grenada Today over a 2001 letter to the editor that called him corrupt and incompetent.
The paper's publisher, George Worme, has to pay by Tuesday or face liquidation, according to a court order issued Thursday.
The newspaper's attorney, Anselm Clouden, said Friday that the newspaper is trying to negotiate a lower price with Mitchell "on moral grounds."
Grenada Today exhausted its appeals in 2004, the year prosecutors began investigating Mitchell for alleged corruption, including accusations that he took $1 million in kickbacks from a former Grenadian ambassador-at-large in 2000.
The investigation is ongoing.
Neither Mitchell nor his attorney could be immediately reached for comment Friday.
Mitchell has sued several of the island's weekly newspapers, as well as TV and radio stations on similar allegations. He reached a settlement in 2005 with Cable & Wireless after users on its Web Site posted messages repeating claims that he had accepted a bribe.
The telecommunications company agreed to help fund a community recreation center in the district that Mitchell represented, since he declined to accept personal compensation. It also agreed to pay an unspecified amount to the public treasury.
Mitchell held power for 13 years before losing the 2008 general elections.
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