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Former dictator sues Call of Duty makers

This article is more than 12 months old

​Looks like art is imitating life in this one. And former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega, 80, is not happy.

He is suing video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc, who are behind the popular Call of Duty: Black Ops II, because a character in the game looks slightly too familiar.

Noriega, who reportedly had a fondness for using violence against his enemies and citizens, alleges that the game portrays him as a "kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state."

He is seeking damages and lost profits as claims the use of his character led to more sales.

The 2012 blockbuster game banked in more than US$1 billion (S$1.24 billion) less than a month after its release.

In the game, the character, who is also named Manuel Noriega, assists the CIA but then betrays them. The character occasionally shoots his own soldiers in the game as well.

In real life, Noriega was a close US ally until the 1989 US invasion of Panama in 1989.

He then spent two decades in a US prison on drug trafficking charges, followed by two more years in a French prison before returning to Panama in 2011, where he is currently residing in a hospital.

Sources: The Los Angeles Times, AFP, The Verge

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