By Andrew Chung
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will defend Activision Blizzard Inc in a lawsuit the former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega filed over his depiction in the company's popular "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" video game.
As co-counsel, Giuliani said he would assert that a right to free speech protected Noriega's depiction in the game.
"Here we have a man who is one of the most notorious criminals in the world, who made himself a public figure by killing people, selling drugs to people, torturing people ... and now because he's a bit player in a video game" he is suing, Giuliani told Reuters.
Calling the lawsuit "extortion," Giuliani said, "It offends the sense of justice that Noriega is complaining for basically the things he did his whole life."
Seeking unspecified damages, Noriega, 80 and serving time in Panama, filed the lawsuit in July in Los Angeles Superior Court, saying Activision had portrayed him as "the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes," including kidnapping and murder, to heighten the game's realism and increase sales.
Activision said in a statement that the stories in the "Call of Duty" franchise were based on actual events.
Giuliani said if Noriega prevailed it would have a chilling effect on artists depicting historical and political figures. By way of example, he said the heirs of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could sue over his portrayal in the 2012 film "Zero Dark Thirty."
Noriega was the military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989, when his rule ended with a U.S. invasion.
He was later indicted in the United States on drug and racketeering charges, convicted in 1992 and imprisoned until 2010, when he was extradited to France to serve a sentence there. France then sent him to Panama, where he remains in jail for crimes committed during his rule, including murder.
Giuliani served two terms as New York City mayor, including during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham, Lisa Von Ahn and Howard Goller)