Los Angeles (AFP)
The British spelunker suing Los Angeles court Elon Musk for defamation claimed Friday $ 190 million in compensation for a tweet in which the boss of Tesla had insulted him of "guy pedo" ("pedo guy").
Vernon Unsworth's attorney, Lin Wood, said in his argument that this amount was the equivalent of a billion dollar "hit on the fingers" and that it would prevent him from "launching a nuclear bomb again." in the life of another individual ".
In 90 minutes of speaking in the Los Angeles federal court, Mr. Wood painted a portrait of a "billion-dollar tyrant" against his client, a man of modest origins whose life was turned upside down by the projectors focused on this dispute high-profile.
The case dates back to the summer of 2018, when the whimsical entrepreneur born in South Africa sent a submarine of his design to help take child prisoners from a cave in Thailand.
Vernon Unsworth, who was involved in relief operations, described the mission mounted by Musk in a CNN interview as a "publicity stunt". He said in particular that the submersible was unsuitable and that the billionaire could "put it where it hurts".
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX had replicated on Twitter, using the term "guy pedo" ("pedo guy") to refer to Mr. Unsworth.
Elon Musk had apologized a few days after the tweets in question, which he had erased.
During the trial that opened on Tuesday, the sexagenarian reaffirmed that the head of companies had indeed wanted to make a "publicity stunt".
Mr. Musk's lawyers have been arguing since the beginning of the trial that the 48-year-old leader's avenging tweets were only an "insult" in a dispute between the two men, but that it is not a question of properly speaking of defamation.
On Wednesday, Mr Unsworth said he was "humiliated and dirty" for life after being "publicly identified as a pedophile" by Elon Musk.
© 2019 AFP