New Zealand court rules Kim Dotcom eligible for US extradition to face online piracy charges
FBI alleges Megaupload website netted more than US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than US$500 million by offering pirated content
New Zealand’s High Court ruled Monday that Kim Dotcom was eligible for extradition to the United States over online piracy allegations linked to his now-defunct Megaupload web empire.
But defence lawyers immediately vowed to appeal the decision and maintain the long-running battle to stop Dotcom being sent for trial in the US.
“We are far from defeated,” Dotcom’s barrister Ron Mansfield said in a statement.
The last hurdle to what we say is the correct outcome – no extradition – will now need to be determined by the Court of Appeal
Dotcom himself lashed out at the judgment on Twitter, arguing he had proved his central legal point that copyright is not an extraditable offence.
“It’s a political case. It’s a political judgment,” he tweeted. “I told you I can’t be extradited for copyright and I was right. What is this? Sharia law?”
The FBI alleges Megaupload netted more than US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than US$500 million by offering pirated content.
Dotcom has denied any wrongdoing and accused US authorities of pursuing a vendetta against him on behalf of politically influential Hollywood studios. He has argued Megaupload was a genuine file-sharing site that did its best to police copyright infringement but had 50 million daily users and could not control every aspect of their activity.
Dotcom, a German with permanent residency in New Zealand, faces decades in jail if convicted in the US of piracy.
