- The Observer, Sunday April 16 2000
In his Statement of Claim, Irving lists 13 points he considers defamatory. The article, in his view, accuses him, among other things, of inflating the death toll in the Allied air raid on Dresden tenfold, of obtaining the microfiche plates of the Goebbels diaries in Moscow by subterfuge, and of using 'the means of invention, omission or distortion to express an obsession, thereby demonstrating a lack of the detachment, rationality and judgment'. Irving also claims aggravated damages on the grounds that The Observer failed to publish a timely reply by him to the article and that Sereny had pursued a campaign of defamation against him for nearly 20 years. The Observer will apply to have his action struck out on the grounds that these matters have already been litigated in the libel case against Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt that concluded last week.
