NZ High Court: Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US

The New Zealand High Court has found that internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is eligible to be extradited to the United States.

He and three others involved in his Megaupload website face 20 years in prison on charges of copyright infringement, conspiracy, racketeering and money laundering.

The self-styled German born “internet freedom fighter” (Kim Schmitz) was given permanent residency in New Zealand in late 2010. He has been fighting to avoid been taken to the US since 2012 when US authorities seized Megaupload assets.

Authorities allege Megaupload netted US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than US$500 million by offering pirated music, movie and TV content.

Dotcom insists Megaupload was a genuine file-sharing site but one which could not police the activities of its users as it drew upwards of 50 million visitors each day. In any case, he says, the case should be a civil, not a criminal trial.

The NZ High Court’s Justice Murray Gilbert was asked to overturn the decision of an earlier ruling by the District Court on December 23 2015.

Justice Gilbert agreed with Dotcom’s defence that he could not be extradited on the basis of alleged copyright infringement, since “online communication of copyright protected works to the public is not a criminal offence in New Zealand.”

However, the judge also agreed with US authorities who claim that it was a case involving “fraud” which is considered a serious crime in NZ.

The ruling does not determine the defendant’s’ guilt or innocence, merely that they can be extradited to the US for trial.

Dotcom and his legal team say they will appeal and take it to the Supreme Court.

Earlier, he tweeted he had “won” as yesterday’s ruling agreed he cannot be sent to the US for copyright infringement. But had still “lost anyway”, calling the ruling “a political judgement”.

A statement from Dotcom’s barrister Ron Mansfield called the ruling “extremely disappointing” and called it a “politically charged and misunderstood case”.

The statement read: “The High Court has accepted that Parliament made a clear and deliberate decision not to criminalise this type of alleged conduct by internet service providers, making them not responsible for the acts of their users.

“For the Court to then permit the same conduct to be categorised as a type of fraud in our view disrupts Parliament’s clear intent. The High Court decision means that Parliament’s intended protection for internet service providers is now illusory. That will be a concern for internet service providers and impact on everyone’s access to the internet.”

Out on bail since his Auckland mansion was raided, Dotcom released an album, started file sharing company Mega, and unsuccessfully contested the NZ 2014 election fronting a political party.