By Grace Chaile
LUSAKA businessman Diego Casili has sued the Daily Nation Newspaper seeking damages for defamation of character for the story it published that he was spearheading a Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) initiative for the forthcoming August 12 elections.
Mr Casilli, of Italian origin and consul general for Belgium, feels the story, which followed complaints that he was inappropriately involved in local PVT defamed him.
Mr Casilli has told the Lusaka High Court that the article published by Daily Nation on July 20, this year on its front page titled “ Hijacked PVT Sparks Uproar” was malicious.
He wants the Lusaka High Court to grant him a permanent injunction preventing Daily Nation from publishing any articles on him.
He is also demanding damages for libel on account of the alleged scandalous , malicious ,and libellous material published by Daily Nation against him.
Mr Cassilli also wants aggravated damages for the alleged callousness and malice exhibited by Daily Nation as to the effect the article would have on his reputation.
In a claim, Mr Casilli , who is honorary Consul-General for Belgium stated that Daily Nation published an article which read that uproar has broken out within OCiDA, following reports that the Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) project, scheduled for the August 12 elections, has been hijacked by a partisan team led by the UPND.
It further read that the founding members are disturbed by reports that the project has been handed to Lusaka businessman Diego Cassili.
The Plaintiff is and was at all material times an Italian national resident in Zambia and is a prominent business leader. He is also a diplomat in the capacity of honorary Consul-General for Belgium in Zambia.
He said that the contents of the said article were maliciously libelous in that they were published with the specific intent of defaming him by smearing his name, repute and character and lowering his standing in the minds and opinions of right thinking members of the public. He said the words in the article implied that he is engaging lawyers and colluding with the UPND to unseat the PF.
Mr Casilli stated that the article also implied that he has engaged in criminality and actions of sabotage against the State, the electoral system, the President and the ruling party by purportedly recruiting named lawyers to sabotage the election results in favour of UPND.
