The Ukrainian woman who survived the car crash in which Liam Lawlor died begins a libel action against the Sunday World in the High Court today.
Julia Kushnir has sued six newspapers over their reporting of the crash in Moscow in 2005 but this is the first case to come to court.
Four other actions - against the Sunday Independent, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Tribune and the Irish Sunday Mirror - are pending. Ms Kushnir settled her action against the Observer newspaper last month for €100,000.
Ms Kushnir (30) travelled from her home in Prague several days ago. Others who will give evidence include character witnesses from Tel Aviv, Moscow and New York, as well as an official from the Irish Embassy in Moscow.
The Sunday World recently lost a High Court application to compel Ms Kushnir to lodge €30,000 in court as security towards legal costs if her case fails.
The newspaper is expected to argue that it did not name Ms Kushnir and the story had not appeared in all editions of the Sunday World. The Dublin edition was not sold abroad and the edition could only be read by somebody in Ireland that day.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/e23497a4-11b8-483c-94f7-2871a9e21dab.png)