Sacha Baron Cohen sued for £67m over Bruno 'terrorist' slur

A Palestinian shopkeeper portrayed as a terrorist in the film Bruno is suing Sacha Baron Cohen, US talk show host David Letterman and others in a £67.5 million defamation case.

The action filed by Ayman Abu Aita in US federal court seeks 110 million dollars in damages for libel and slander.

In the film, Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist trying to make it big in the US. To achieve worldwide fame, Bruno travels to the Middle East to make peace. He interviews Abu Aita, and a caption labels the Bethlehem shopkeeper as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Mr Abu Aita is suing CBS and Letterman's company Worldwide Pants over an interview before the film's release where the Late Show host and comedian Cohen discussed Bruno's encounter with a "terrorist".

In the interview, Cohen, 37, said he set up the meeting in the West Bank with the help of a CIA agent.

Cohen said he feared for his safety and interviewed the "terrorist" at a secret location chosen by Mr Abu Aita. A clip was then played on The Late Show with David Letterman.

According to the lawsuit, however, the interview with Mr Abu Aita took place at a hotel chosen by Cohen and located in a part of the West Bank that was under Israeli military control.

Film distributor NBC Universal and director Larry Charles are also named in the lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for Universal Studios declined to comment. Tom Keaney, a spokesman for David Letterman, also said he would not comment.

Cohen also faced multiple lawsuits after his earlier movie Borat including one for £18.4 million filed by residents of a remote Romanian village who said they were misled into thinking the project was a documentary about poverty. Most of the lawsuits were thrown out.

Mr Abu Aita is prominent businessman, a Christian and a "peace-loving person who abhors violence", the latest lawsuit states.

Before the film, he "enjoyed a good reputation for honesty and a peaceable nature" in his community, his lawyers wrote.

They say any accusations or insinuations that he is or ever was associated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, or any other terrorist activity, was "utterly false and untrue".

Lawyer Joseph Drennan said mr Abu Aita was never offered a release to sign to appear in the film.

"This is an important lawsuit because it is about the dignity of a specific person. It is about his reputation, about his standing in the community," Mr Drennan said.

"It addresses a very corrosive and calumnious slur against any young Palestinian who would be a political activist on the West Bank", who would be called a "terrorist" because of his activism.

Hatem Abu Ahmad, Mr Abu Aita's Arab-Israeli lawyer, said Cohen made millions "on the back of my client".

The film drew disdain from the Israelis and Palestinians portrayed in a place Bruno calls Middle Earth.

Mr Drennan said he expected a hearing on Mr Abu Aita's complaint in late January.