ST JOHN’S, Antigua — Libel claims for defamation of character as well as “deliberate and malicious conduct” were yesterday filed on behalf of Prime Minister Lester Bird against the owners and operators of the Observer newspaper and Observer Radio here.

Claims of “false, scandalous and defamatory allegations” were also filed by Dominica-born senior counsel, Anthony Astaphan, against Opposition Leader Balwin Spencer, lawyer Harold Lovell and others as well as an unidentified “female minor”.

Yesterday’s legal development followed last week’s threat by Bird that he would pursue such a course failing a public apology by the Observer newspaper in relation to the circulation of a videotape in which the minor, said to be about 14 years, has made sexual and drug-trafficking allegations against the prime minister.

In a statement released to the media, Bird’s attorney, Astaphan, said that “regrettably we were obliged by law to join the female minor as a defendant in one of the cases.

“However, the prime minister has given us clear and strong instructions that we must at all times protect the dignity and interests of the female minor who may well be the pawn or victim of a well-engineered conspiracy to defame him by persons politically opposed to him.”

Astaphan listed the various individuals against whom, he said, claims have been filed in connection with allegations contained in the videotape and at a public meeting at which the “false, scandalous and defamatory allegations were repeated”.

Police Commissioner Truehart Smith also issued a press statement yesterday denying a report in yesterday’s edition of the Daily Observer that he had refused to pursue prosecution of “criminal libel” against the Derrick members who own and operate the newspaper.

The commissioner said that he wished to make it “abundantly clear” that at no time was there a conversation between him and Prime Minister Bird, as reported in the article, about prosecution for criminal libel against the Derricks, owners of the Observer newspaper and Observer Radio.

Nor, said Truehart, was he instructed or induced to do so by anyone claiming to act on Bird’s behalf.

Against the background of the escalating developments over the production and circulation of the controversial videotape, the minister of information in Bird’s cabinet, Guy Yearwood, has withdrawn his participation in the Fifth Caribbean Media Conference, scheduled to start in St John’s on Thursday.

Yearwood, who was invited to address the formal opening session of the conference which concludes on Saturday, said his decision should not be viewed as disrespect for the Caribbean participants but that he could not in all conscience perform the function requested in view of the “unwarranted outrageous attacks” on the integrity of the prime minister.