Kim Dotcom may be extradited to the United States, the rules of the New Zealand Court



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A court of appeal in New Zealand on Thursday rejected Dotcom's attempt to overturn an earlier ruling that it should face criminal charges in the United States, claiming that Washington had presented "prima facie evidence" Facie in support of the charges "

The decision to extradite Dotcom now belongs to New Zealand Justice Minister Andrew Little, but Dotcom said it would seek permission from Appealing Thursday's decision in New York.

With three co-defendants, Dotcom was indicted by a US grand jury on various charges, including racketeering conspiracy, cable fraud, conspiracy for infringement of copyright on a commercial scale and money laundering.

They deny the charges and fiercely fight against extradition, arguing that Megaupload was simply a sit-in. e of file sharing and that they should not be blamed for what others had downloaded there.

Three New Zealand courts have now ruled against them, rejecting this argument and claiming that they could not be extradited for taking advantage of the copyright infringement because it did not happen. was not a crime in New Zealand.

Although the Court of Appeal held that dual criminality was required for an extradition offense, it stated that "we are satisfied that the New Zealand law allows extradition for violation of the copyright in the circumstances of the case ".

"The appellants are charged with conduct which, if proven, would establish extradition offenses under New Zealand law," the court said.

Dotcom also lost an attempt to the US Supreme Court to recover $ 40 million of assets seized by the government.
  Kim Dotcom leaves with his friend Elizabeth Donelly following his appeal for extradition to the High Court of Auckland on August 29, 2016.

Last Chance

Ministry of Justice New Zealand refused to comment on the judgment Thursday, however under the extradition law
Ira Rothken, US attorney Dotcom, said on Twitter that the defendants were "disappointed by the judgment rendered today by the New Zealand Court of Appeals".

"We have now gone before three courts each having a different legal analysis – one of them thought that there was no copyright infringement" , he said. "We will seek reconsideration from the New Zealand Supreme Court."

Under New Zealand law, only the Supreme Court decides what cases it will hear and the Dotcom legal team will now have to seek leave to appeal. In a statement Dotcom stated that his legal team was "confident that the Supreme Court will hear the appeal since such important legal issues are at stake."

He said that the judgment of the Court of Appeal was "in total negation of the legislative history and the intent of the Copyright Act, so it the value of toilet paper.

"The series of precedents is worrying and has ramifications in New Zealand apart from my case," Dotcom added. "The decision exposes Internet service providers to criminal liability for the misuse of their services by users, as is claimed against me."

US legislation places great importance on copyright holders and has been criticized for stifling innovation and harming consumers, and for exporting US regulations on copyright law. author to other countries through free trade agreements.
Washington also went aggressively after file-sharing sites, with multinational cases against Kickass Torrents and The Pirate Bay. Defenders of the site point out that they simply facilitate copyright infringement by sharing links to peer-to-peer torrent downloads, and do not actively host protected files.

CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.

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