A Palestinian man described as a terrorist in Sacha Baron Cohen’s movie, “Bruno,” has taken his lawsuit to D.C. Superior Court after a judge recently dismissed his previous case in U.S. District Court.
Ayman Abu Aita is suing Cohen and others after he appeared in the 2009 movie with a caption labeling him as a “terrorist group leader” for a group Cohen described in an interview with David Letterman as “kind of the No. 1 suicide bombers out there.” Aita is a grocer and claims Cohen presented himself as a German journalist who wanted to talk to him “about the plight of the Palestinian people.”
Along with Cohen, Aita is suing Letterman, CBS Broadcasting and the Gannett Company (the owner WUSA-Channel 9) for airing the interview between Letterman and Cohen where they discuss the “terrorist” and show a clip from the interview.
In court documents, Aita claims he has been falsely associated with a “scurrilous and scandalous movie, causing him great emotional distress, depression and shame.”
The legal complaint describes the plaintiff as a “peace-loving person who abhors violence.”
