Alex Goldfarb has filed a complaint in federal court in Manhattan after broadcasts on RT and Channel One blamed him for the former Russian spy’s 2006 death in London

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A close friend of Alexander Litvinenko sued two Russian state television channels on Thursday for airing false claims that he was behind the late dissident’s murder.

Alex Goldfarb said he was the victim of “malicious defamation” in broadcasts shown on RT and Channel One earlier this year that blamed him for the fatal 2006 poisoning of Litvinenko in London.

In a complaint filed to federal court in Manhattan, Goldfarb accused both channels of libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He requested unspecified damages.

The legal action was supported by Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, who previously added her name to demands for retractions from the state-controlled television stations for their broadcasts.

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“It took me 10 years to get some closure when a British court named my husband’s murderers,” Marina Litvinenko said in a statement. “Now these false claims that he was killed by our close friend are broadcast to tens of millions of people. This adds insult to injury.”

Alexander Litvinenko: the man who solved his own murder | Luke Harding Read more

Anna Belkina, a spokeswoman for RT, said: “We have received a letter from Mr Goldfarb’s representative, and we are in the process of reviewing it.” Representatives for Channel One did not respond to a request for comment.

Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer, was murdered in 2006 with a radioactive cup of tea. A public inquiry held by British authorities a decade later ruled that his killers were Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and that they were sent by Russia’s FSB spy agency – probably with the approval of President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has mounted a campaign to discredit the official version of the killing with help from Litvinenko’s father, Walter, who once blamed Putin for his son’s death but changed his account after returning to Russia from an unhappy exile in 2012.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alex Goldfarb. Photograph: Getty Images

Goldfarb’s lawsuit cites three broadcasts on Channel One and two on RT in March and April, following the nerve agent attack on another Russian dissident in England, which the British government has since blamed on Russian military intelligence.

It highlights comments made by Walter Litvinenko on Channel One on 20 March, when the elder Litvinenko claimed Goldfarb was a CIA agent and that he had been told “Alex killed Alexander,” later adding: “Goldfarb. It was his work.”

Goldfarb, who also pointed to another Channel One show that repeated the false allegations 10 days later, said in his lawsuit that the channel acted maliciously by choosing to ignore the official judicial findings on Litvinenko’s killing.

One of the RT broadcasts, which aired on 1 April, featured similar remarks from Walter Litvinenko and falsely asserted that all materials from the British inquiry into the poisoning death had been classified and kept secret.

“I don’t know if I will ever collect any damages,” Goldfarb said in a statement. “But I saw my friend die a most horrible death. I cannot permit them lie about it with impunity. I must show them, myself and everyone else that their spell of evil can somehow, somewhere be checked. Many people support us.”



