Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has called on Patrick Man­ning to apol­o­gise for state­ments made out­side of Par­lia­ment, or face a defama­tion law­suit in court. She did so in a in a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter yes­ter­day. Per­sad-Bisses­sar, through her at­tor­neys, is claim­ing that her rep­u­ta­tion was tar­nished by the state­ments made by the for­mer prime min­is­ter on No­vem­ber 12. Man­ning re­port­ed­ly com­ment­ed on the Prime Min­is­ter's rev­e­la­tion of the Strate­gic In­tel­li­gence Agency (SIA).

His state­ments were re­port­ed­ly made in a news con­fer­ence he called out­side of the Par­lia­men­tary sit­ting two Fri­days ago. Through at­tor­ney De­vesh Ma­haraj, Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ask­ing that Man­ning is­sue a prop­er apol­o­gy on terms to be agreed; not re­peat the al­le­ga­tions; pay a sub­stan­tial amount in dam­ages, and; pay her le­gal costs for the ac­tion. The al­leged defama­tion sur­round­ing the Prime Min­is­ter and the SIA was pub­lished in a dai­ly news­pa­per on No­vem­ber 13.