Thus, when a person claims that he can be identified with a character who is presented in halakha as a fictional character, the claim will be examined on the basis of those details of information, traits and characteristics that represent the fictional character, in comparison to the characteristics of the claimant as they are known to his close circle of acquaintances.
A situation in which he finds that the claimant's acquaintances identify the fictional character with the claimant will remove the mask of fiction and expose the advertiser to the claims relating to the publication. It is understood that the degree of certainty in the identification may vary from case to case and according to the circumstances, with uncertainty necessitating a decision based on the burden of proof.
- And if so, is it possible to identify the plaintiff with the fictional character known as "the villain"?
The plaintiff, in reality, of course, wears a number of hats.
The applicant has Israeli citizenship and a career in academia. He is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Sofia, specializing in intelligence research. This is confirmed by the defendant (p. 76; para. 11 of the proc).
The plaintiff has a business relationship with a company called CCI that deals in computer fraud, and dealt with, for example, the theft affair that was discovered in 2014 on the Mt.GOX crypto exchange (paragraph 12 of the plaintiff's affidavit). This was also confirmed by the defendant (p. 76; para. 13 in prot.).
The plaintiff is also engaged in real estate business and the purchase of properties in Bulgaria. This is what the defendant himself declared in the framework of the previous claim (paragraphs 28 onwards of the defendant's affidavit in the previous claim - attached as Appendix 3 to the defendant's exhibits).
This is the plaintiff in reality. And the villain in the book? How is it presented?
A perusal of the various publications in which the defendant refers to the same character in the book, the one referred to here as "the villain", shows that the same character is also presented as an Israeli living in Europe, as a person whose occupation is "an internationally renowned lecturer in Europe and the president of a company that fights computer crime". The same character is also portrayed as someone who is involved in real estate business in Bulgaria.