Green Light for Kim Dotcom's Extradition to the US

It's a bad start to the year for Kim Dotcom, whose real name is Kim Schmitz. A few weeks ago, the founder of the download site Megaupload, which was shut down by the FBI on January 19, 2011, had to postpone the launch of his new download site due to a lack of funding. This time, it's New Zealand justice that has dealt him a blow: The New Zealand High Court on Monday gave the green light to the extradition of the hacker wanted by Washington to the United States, where he faces twenty years in prison. prison. The decision also concerns three of his former associates: Finn Patato, Matthias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk.

“Persecution operation”

Kim Dotcom did not hesitate to respond on Twitter by condemning what he calls the “Persecution operation” Towards him. “It’s a political issue. It’s a political ruling. I told you again that I can’t be extradited for copyright reasons and you were right. What is this? Sharia law?” He said.

For their part, Kim Dotcom's lawyers have announced their intention to appeal the High Court ruling, which upheld a lower court ruling in December 2015. They must rely in particular on one ambiguity in Justice Murray's decision. He acknowledges that New Zealand does not recognize the distribution of copyrighted works over the internet as a criminal offence, and therefore this cannot be sufficient grounds for Kim Dotcom's extradition. However, he believes that sufficient elements have been gathered in terms of the criminal law and anti-fraud provisions to justify extradition. “We are definitely not defeated.”Attorney Ron Mansfield said in a statement.

The case erupted in January 2011 when New Zealand police carried out a stunning early morning raid on Kim Dotcom's luxury home. The US Department of Justice and the FBI accuse him of running the Megaupload website via Megaupload. “An international organized crime enterprise believed to be responsible for large-scale online piracy of a wide range of protected content.”which grossed $175 million and caused losses of more than $500 million for rights holders.