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MegaUpload extradition hearing now postponed until next August

By | Published on Thursday 20 December 2012

MegaUpload

Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz will be running his new Mega venture, recording terrible pop songs and merrily tweeting jibes at Hollywood studio bosses and American politicians until at least next summer, following news that the MegaUpload founder’s extradition hearing is to be postponed yet again.

As much previously reported, the US is trying to extradite Dotcom and three other former MegaUpload execs living in New Zealand to face charges of money laundering, racketeering and copyright infringement in relation to their involvement in the now defunct file-transfer business.

The extradition case had been originally due to reach court last August, but was pushed pack into spring 2013 after it was revealed that New Zealand police raided Dotcom’s home using the wrong kind of permit, that they broke laws by letting US officials take evidence seized in that raid back to America, and that the country’s intelligence bureau spied on Dotcom and his colleagues before the raid without the required clearances from the powers that be.

Legal reps for Dotcom told reporters yesterday that the extradition hearing had now been postponed again, and would not take place until August 2013, a whole year on from the original hearing dates. No specific reasons have been given for the latest delay.

Dotcom et al deny the charges made against them and, while occasionally indicating a desire to be vindicated in the American courts, have also had their lawyers play with various legal technicalities which, they reckon, mean the US government should not be allowed to pursue its case against the Mega company, or extradite its former bosses. Meanwhile Dotcom plans to launch an all-new Mega service next month, a year to the day that the US authorities took the original Mega offline.



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