London's High Court supported fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky's libel action against a Russian TV broadcaster and an individual and awarded him a compensation of some $224,000 on Wednesday.
London-based Berezovsky, wanted in Russia on charges of fraud and coup plot, filed a lawsuit against the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and against an individual, Vladimir Terluk, in May 2007 after a TV program accused him of involvement in the poisoning of ex-Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko and of forging a recording to avoid extradition.
Litvinenko died in London in November 2006 of polonium-210 poisoning. On his deathbed, he accused then Russian president Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his death, which the Kremlin strongly denied.
Terluk appears to have been featured in a TV broadcast in April 2007 on the RTR Planeta channel, available in Britain via satellite, as a man named "Pyotr" interviewed by the Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week) program.
The judge said VGTRK and Terluk should each pay 75,000 British pounds (about $112,000) to Berezovsky.
The Russian broadcaster said it would appeal the verdict, which it says was delivered with procedural violations.
"VGTRK will not accept the ruling, as it was delivered by an improper assembly of the court, without a jury and also without the presence of VGTRK," a company lawyer, Zoya Matveyevskaya, said.
In early February, VGTRK officially stated that it will not recognize any court rulings on this case and will appeal them up to the European Court, saying the court process that started in the London's High Court early last week was "biased" and "politically tinted."
It said the British court had demanded that VGTRK reveal its information sources, and after the TV company refused, the court banned the broadcaster from taking part in the court process.
In several U.S. states, shield laws protect reporters from being forced by subpoena or other court orders to testify on information contained in news material or the source of that information.
The judge dismissed the information as "groundless," saying the reason behind the ban was that VGTRK rejected any contacts with the court or Berezovsky's lawyers.
LONDON, March 10 (RIA Novosti)
