U.S. prosecutors have filed papers seeking the extradition of Kim Dotcom,
founder of MegaUpload and three colleagues, who are charged in the U.S. with
allegedly running a criminal enterprise responsible for online piracy of
numerous types of copyrighted works.
Kim Dotcom: The extradition papers were received Friday at the North Shore
District Court in
Auckland, New Zealand, a spokeswoman for the country's
Ministry of Justice said Monday. The court is not releasing the papers at this
time.
On Wednesday, the
High Court of New Zealand, Auckland Registry decided that
Dotcom could stay free on bail, after government prosecutors acting on behalf of
U.S. authorities appealed a Feb. 22 decision of the District Court to grant him
bail.
The judge said that he understands that the extradition hearing will not take
place until August, and observed that for Dotcom "to be incarcerated for another
six months awaiting the extradition hearing, the risk of flight has to be a real
one". The electronic monitoring of Dotcom which was one of his many bail
conditions reduced the risk of flight, he said. "It essentially puts a perimeter
around Mr. Dotcom's home and if he breaches the perimeter then the authorities
will know about it very shortly," he added.
The judge also accepted a submission by the counsel for Dotcom that remand in
custody at this point would adversely affect Dotcom's ability to properly
prepare for the extradition hearing and instruct counsel.
The bail conditions require Dotcom to mostly stay at his rented mansion
outside of Auckland except for medical emergencies, wear an electronic
monitoring bracelet, and not use the Internet. His wife, who is pregnant with
twins, and their three children also stay at the mansion.
Dotcom, who ran the MegaUpload file-sharing website until it was shut down,
was denied bail shortly after he was arrested on January 20. The decision was
upheld on February 3 after he appealed. Dotcom then filed a second bail
application based on new factual circumstances and was freed on February 22.
Dotcom and colleagues, and two companies including MegaUpload, were indicted
by a grand jury in the
Eastern District of Virginia on January 5, and charged
with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright
infringement and money laundering, and two substantive counts of criminal
copyright infringement, according to the
U.S. Department of Justice.
Dotcom and colleagues Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were
arrested in Auckland by New Zealand authorities, who executed provisional arrest
warrants requested by the U.S.
The background on Kim Dotcom: An internet provider who is a German national
and
NZ resident. Is wanted to answer charges in the US. Was the centre of a
massive police operation in NZ some weeks ago, during which 70 police, including
the NZ
Armed Offenders Squad and a helicopter, invaded a property that included
a NZ$30 million mansion.
This police action was believed to have been led by the
FBI. Mr Dotcom was
arrested and most of his assets confiscated. The NZ public believed the raid was
some sort of anti-terrorist operation, but the facts were slowly released
through the news media. He is s now on electronic bail on an adjoining
property.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/dotcom-extradition/
http://www.3news.co.nz/Kim-Dotcoms-first-TV-interview-Im-no-piracy-king/tabid/817/articleID/244830/Default.aspx
US
authorities file paper for 
Very intriguing .........what a strange world it is
ReplyDeleteThis one is very intriguing. Haven't figured it out yet. Dotcom does have a reasonably minor criminal record. But I think they just want to get hold of him to set an example of him. I hope the NZ judge refuses to grant extradition.
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