The Superior Court of New Jersey has reportedly awarded investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas $18 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit against former Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyapong and Frederick Asamoah, a social media commentator.
The damages were awarded by the court following alleged defamatory statements made by the defendants during a 2021 interview broadcast on social media.
The investigative journalist filed the case on May 17, 2022, in the Essex County Superior Court, accusing Kennedy Agyapong and Frederick Asamoah of making false and damaging statements about Anas during an episode of “The Daddy Fred Show,” a popular online program targeting Ghanaian audiences in the United States.
The interview, which was streamed live on Facebook and other platforms, garnered over 29,000 views and contained several defamatory claims against Anas.
Anas told the court that the defendants’ statements were part of a calculated effort to tarnish his reputation and discredit his work.
The defamatory remarks included allegations that Anas was a criminal, a thief, and responsible for the murder of Ahmed Suale, an undercover journalist who worked with Anas on the explosive documentary “Number 12.”
The late Suale was tragically murdered in January 2019, and no one has been convicted for the crime to date. Documents submitted to the court accessed the former MP of making several false statements, including the fact that Anas was a criminal who had been convicted of crimes in Ghana.
He had also alleged that Anas was behind the murder of Ahmed Suale, responsible for the deaths of multiple Chinese nationals in Ghana, and stated that Anas was a thief.
The court awarded Anas a total of $18 million in damages. Meanwhile, lawyers for Kennedy Agyapong have applied for remittitur – a reduction in the amount of damages awarded.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
