Former KGB agent sues Amazon over book review

A former KGB agent is suing the online retail giant Amazon for libel over a customer book review published on its internet website.

Alexander Vassiliev, co-author of a book entitled The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America – The Stalin Era, claims that the review, by the British lawyer and film-maker John Lowenthal, is defamatory, and it undermines his chances of selling film and television rights for the book.

The case is likely to raise further issues concerning the law on internet-based publication, and on the murky area of where such defamation cases should be heard.

The lawsuit marks the first time that Amazon has been sued over a customer review, which can be written by anyone visiting the website. Previously the company has been sued in the British courts for offering particularly controversial books through its American or British sites – first in February 1999 over a book about the Scientology cult, and then in May 1999 over a book called The Committee: Political Assassination in Northern Ireland, which the Ulster Unionist MP David Trimble claimed libelled him.

In the review that has sparked the latest case, Mr Lowenthal alleges that KGB papers which Mr Vassiliev claims he saw exclusively in return for payment from a publishing house cannot be verified as authentic or accurate.

Written in February 2001, the extensive book review can be read on both the US and UK websites, along with 15 other reviews of the book by other readers. Mr Lowenthal, a British resident, is a former lawyer and professor of law at New York's Rutgers University, and has also written about intelligence subjects. The review was posted to the Amazon US site, but is also visible on the UK one.

Amazon confirmed that Mr Vassiliev is suing the company for libel. It said: "Mr Lowenthal's review was published on the US Amazon.com site and is a personal critique which does not reflect the views of the Seattle-based company in any way."

Mr Vassiliev is also suing the London-based publishing house Frank Cass for libel over an article by Mr Lowenthal in one of its journals.

A pre-trial review for both libel claims was heard in the High Court earlier this week.