Due to the insult of a British speleologist as a "pedo type" Tesla boss Elon Musk must answer in court. A US federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed Musk's objections to the defamation lawsuit.
The process should start on 3 December. "We look forward to the process," musk lawyer Alex Spiro said.
The tech billionaire had proposed the use of a mini submarine during the youth football team rescue operation that had been trapped by water masses in a cave in Thailand in June 2018. He was upset that British speleologist Vernon Unsworth had criticized his proposal as a public relations stunt and in a tweet referred him to more than 22 million Twitter followers with no evidence as "pedophiles".
An apology followed by another insult
Later, Musk erased his testimony and apologized. However, he relented and later named the 64-year-old Unsworth a "child rapist" who had married his Thai-born wife as a twelve-year-old. Unsworth dismissed the allegations and filed suit against Musk.
Musk had tried to avert the process by arguing that the term "pedo-type" had been a common swear word during his childhood in South Africa. Thus, a "scary old man" referred to, the term contains no concrete pedophilia-charge.
Judge Stephen Wilson rejected Musk's objections. Musk's remarks following the "pedo-type" affirmation suggested that Musk actually considered the plaintiff a pedophile, he said.
Read more about Musk and the US manufacturer Tesla: How Elon Musk drives Germany crazy