Grenada minister expects blogger legal action

A senior minister in the government of Grenada said he expects legal action to be taken against a controversial American blogger.

Kenneth Rijock, who is based in Florida, has recently published a series of posts that allege wrongdoing by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell and the head of the country's citizenship by investment (CBI) programme, Kaisha Ince.

Speaking earlier this week, Minister for International Business Nickolas Steele said that Rijock has spent some time in the past focused on the CBI scheme before going on a "witch hunt".

"I would expect that full action will be taken in respect of defamation of character to the individuals he has tried to sully," he said.

"The Grenadian public at large recognises that un this country we respect the right of privacy, one, and two, we know the individuals he is talking about and that conversation is inaccurate. That conversation is an attempt, quite likely because we are in an electoral season, quite likely he has become a hired gun."

"The money launderer has turned for laundering money from drug dealers to trying to character assassinate of dirty the character of people."

It remains unclear what Rijock stands to gain from publishing his article, Steele added.

In the statement she labelled the claims an "outright lie".

In a blog post last week, Rijock stood by his allegations.

“We do not make statements without a factual basis," he wrote.