Berezovsky`s lawsuit against Russian broadcaster considered in London

London`s High Court on Monday started considering fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky`s libel action against a Russian TV broadcaster and an individual.

London-based Berezovsky, wanted in Russia on charges of fraud and a coup d`etats 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 his 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 VGTRK broadcaster called the court process that started in London Monday "biased" and "politically tinted." It said that the British court had demanded that VGTRK reveal its information sources, but that after the TV company refused, the court banned the broadcaster from taking part in the court process.

"VGTRK officially states that it will not recognize any court rulings on this case and will appeal them up to the European Court," the Russian broadcaster said.

Berezovsky refused to comment.

sections: Society, World News