Kim Dotcom Loses Against US in Extradition Evidence Case

A New Zealand court overturned a ruling on Friday that would have given Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom full access to the evidence the FBI plans to use against him in its extradition case

A New Zealand court overturned a ruling on Friday that would have given Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom full access to the evidence the FBI plans to use against him in its extradition case.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the New Zealand Court of Appeal said the disclosure of documents relating to Dotcom’s indictment would slow proceedings.

The US argued that the amount of documentation ordered to be turned over to Dotcom was unprecedented compared to other extradition cases.

Last year, the New Zealand High Court judge ruled that the US present all evidence it had against Dotcom to ensure that it did not have “a significant advantage” over his case in the extradition hearing. At the time, Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, said he expected the US to continue with its appeals in order to delay the extradition hearing.

“By way of background, the Court of Appeal outlined that extradition is an important feature of international relationships. It provides a mechanism to enable the return of a suspect to the requesting state to stand trial for alleged criminal offending while at the same time seeking to ensure that the extradition process is not abused and the legitimate rights of suspects are protected,” the summary of the ruling stated.  “While extradition proceedings are part of the criminal justice system, they are not criminal trials, so that the full range of protections and procedures applicable to criminal trials do not apply.”

The ruling is certainly a setback for Dotcom, who recently won a case against the US when a Canadian court ruled that it wouldn’t send over the data stored on 32 servers hosted by Megaupload in Ontario until it determined what data was relevant to the case.

“Am I disappointed about the ruling today? YES. Do ‘good faith’ & ‘US govt’ go together? NO. Will I sleep like an innocent baby tonight? YES,” Dotcom tweeted after the ruling.

Dotcom said the best way to support him and his co-accused is to use Mega, the cloud storage service he launched earlier this year with several hosting partners. 

Dotcom’s lawyers plan to appeal to New Zealand’s Supreme Court prior to the extradition hearing, which is slated for August.

Read more on Kim Dotcom’s extradition: Are You Already Hosting the Next Megaupload? with David Snead – HostingCon 2012

Talk back: Do you think this ruling is a big victory for the US? What do you think of the Kim Dotcom extradition? Let us know in a comment.

About Nicole Henderson

Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.