Kim Dotcom extradition case postponed until 2013

A judge in New Zealand has postponed the extradition case against Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom until March 2013. The court first wants to investigate whether the evidence obtained and Dotcom’s arrest are legal.

The New Zealand Supreme Court has postponed the trial over the extradition of Kim Dotcom and his three co-defendants to the United States. The hearing, originally scheduled for August 6, is now set to take place on March 25, 2013. The US wants to sue Dotcom for facilitating millions of downloads of copyrighted material.

The New Zealand court questions the legality of the evidence gathered. For example, the FBI illegally copied and moved seized data abroad. The court order was also said to be ‘too broad’, allowing the seizure of both relevant and irrelevant material. The search was previously declared illegal on these grounds.

Kim Dotcom speaks of ‘dirty delaying tactics’. “They destroyed my business, took all my possessions and time does the rest,” said the Megaupload founder on Twitter† William Akel, one of Kim Dotcom’s attorneys, said it was inevitable that the trial was postponed because “Megaupload still has two cases pending in the Supreme Court.”