WELLINGTON – The United States on Friday won a court appeal in its battle to extradite Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom from New Zealand.
A New Zealand appeals court overturned an earlier ruling that would have allowed Dotcom broad access to evidence in the case against him at the time of his extradition hearing, which is scheduled for August. The appeals court ruled that extensive disclosure would bog down the process and that a summary of the U.S. case would suffice.
Dotcom founded the file-sharing site Megaupload that the U.S. shuttered last year after accusing him of facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale. Dotcom says he is innocent and cannot be held responsible for those who chose to use the site to illegally download songs or movies.
Paul Davison, one of Dotcom’s lawyers, said Friday he planned to appeal the case to New Zealand’s Supreme Court. Under New Zealand law, Dotcom’s legal team must first submit an application to the court, which will then decide whether an appeal has enough merit to proceed.
In its ruling, the appeals court found that full disclosure of evidence was not necessary at the extradition hearing because the hearing is not the venue to determine guilt or innocence. The court pointed out that the legal obligation on the U.S. is simply to prove it has a valid case.
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