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A Muslim victim of the Boston Marathon bombing has sued Glenn Beck for defamation and slander after the talk show host accused him of funding the attacks.
Race spectator Abdulrahman Alharbi filed a federal lawsuit against Beck and his companies, The Blaze Inc. and Mercury Radio Arts, and his radio syndicator, Premier Radio Networks.
Abdulrahman Alharbi — who was a spectator at the marathon and was injured in the bombing — claims that Beck with the assistance of “distributor defendants” (The Blaze, Mercury Radio and Premier Radio Networks), defamed Alharbi by promoting the idea that he was involved in the bombing plot, according to Boston Magazine.
“Glenn Beck, with the active participation of the distributor defendants, repeatedly and falsely identified Mr. Alharbi as an active participant in the crimes that were committed on April 15, 2013, repeatedly questioned the motives of federal officials in failing to pursue or detain Mr. Alharbi and repeatedly and falsely accused Mr. Alharbi of being a criminal who had funded the attacks that took place at the Boston Marathon,” the court filing, obtained by Boston Magazine and dated March 28, reads.
“Those statements were made widely and publicly. The statements were false and did grave injury to the Plaintiff,” it continues.
“As a direct and proximate result of the statements made by Beck and published by the Distributor Defendants, Alharbi’s reputation has been substantially and severely damaged,” the suit adds. “Alharbi has received numerous messages, internet postings and other communications based on Beck’s false statements accusing him of being a murderer, child killer, and terrorist.”
Alharbi is seeking damages in addition to attorney’s fees.
While authorities questioned Alharbi, they pinpointed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev — who was killed in a shootout with police in the days following the bombing — as the bombers.
This is not the first lawsuit targeting the media in the aftermath of the Boston bombing. The two innocent men who the New York Post labeled “bag men” have also sued the Post.
Agencies/Canadajournal
