A US court has awarded $18 million in damages to Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas following a jury’s determination that former Ghanaian MP Kennedy Agyapong defamed him.
This case arose from remarks Agyapong made regarding Anas after the journalist’s 2018 BBC investigation that uncovered corruption in football within Ghana and beyond.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that Agyapong, among several allegations made on a podcast, labelled the journalist a “criminal” and claimed he was connected to the murder of fellow journalist Ahmed Suale.
Anas had previously lost a similar legal case in Ghana seven years ago. However, after the podcast episode’s release in 2021, Anas filed a lawsuit in the US state of New Jersey, where Agyapong owns the property.
According to court documents submitted by his attorneys, the politician was in New Jersey when he participated in an interview for the Daddy Fred Show podcast.
The initial verdict from last week was confirmed on Tuesday. The jury, composed of eight members from Essex County Superior Court in New Jersey, unanimously found Agyapong liable for defamation, resulting in the $18 million damages award.
Anas, who has received numerous international accolades for his journalism, has pledged to persist in combatting corruption and holding wrongdoers accountable.
Agyapong’s legal team argued without success that the case shouldn’t have been filed in the US initially. They also contended that the remarks made during the podcast were hyperbolic opinions, which other courts have ruled as not grounds for defamation.
Additionally, authorities in Ghana have apprehended a suspect related to the murder of Anas’ colleague, Ahmed Hussein Suale, who was killed in 2019.
The suspect allegedly disseminated images of the undercover journalist to a well-known politician in Ghana before Suale’s death.
