Activision is being sued by the family of Jonas Savimbi over his appearance in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Three children of the Angolan rebel leader are demanding damages of €1 million ($1.09 million) over the game, with a complaint over the depiction of Savimbi as a “barbarian” in the 2012 shooter.
Savimbi was the leader of a guerrilla insurgency fighting against the Angolan government, heading up the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the dominant party at the time. The founder and insurgent leader died in 2002 in battle with government forces.
The lawyer for the family claims Savimbi is shown in the opening sections of the game as a “big halfwit who wants to kill everybody,” rather than a “political leader and strategist,” reports The Guardian. In the section in question, Savimbi receives help from the player’s character, shouting out “fight, my brothers” and carrying a grenade launcher as he and the group take on MPLA forces.
Activision’s legal team has responded, rejecting the claim by suggesting Savimbi is represented as a “good guy” and that his portrayal is fair “for who he was.”
The publisher has been previously sued over people featured in the same game, with former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega complaining about his own portrayal. After an appearance by Rudy Giuliani in defense of Activision, the case was rejected as it was covered under the first amendment’s right to free expression. The Savimbi case is being tried in France rather than the US, a country with far tougher laws relating to defamation and the control of a person’s image, and one that is going to be much harder to fight.
