Washington - Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla
Inc, was sued on Monday for defamation for allegedly
suggesting that one of the rescuers of 12 boys and their soccer
coach from a Thailand cave in July was a paedophile.
Vernon Unsworth, a British caver, filed his lawsuit in the
US District Court in Los Angeles, more than two months after
Musk referred to him as a "pedo guy" in a July 15 tweet.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment
from Musk and the company.
Unsworth had called Musk's offer to build a "tube" to help
rescue the children a "PR stunt", and said Musk manufactured the
paedophile allegation "out of whole cloth" simply because he
disagreed with that assessment.
"Despite his total lack of information supporting his false
and defamatory accusations, Musk overtly conveyed to the world
that he was in possession of undisclosed false and defamatory
facts proving Mr Unsworth to be guilty of the accusations," the
complaint said.
The lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 of compensatory damages,
plus unspecified punitive damages.
Musk apologised for his tweet on July 18, saying "his
actions against me do not justify my actions against him," and
that "the fault is mine and mine alone."